Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) Multi-layer ...

!Note • Please read rating and !CAUTION (for storage, operating, rating, soldering, mounting and handling) in this catalog to prevent smoking and/or burning, etc. N20E.pdf
• This catalog has only typical specifications. Therefore, please approve our product specifications or transact the approval sheet for product specifications before ordering.
Jan.22,2014

Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC)
Multi-layer Module Boards

Example: Automotive Application

Example: Communication Application

!Note • Please read rating and !CAUTION (for storage, operating, rating, soldering, mounting and handling) in this catalog to prevent smoking and/or burning, etc. N20E.pdf
• This catalog has only typical specifications. Therefore, please approve our product specifications or transact the approval sheet for product specifications before ordering.
Jan.22,2014

Murata's Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics offer
for automotive modules and RF microwave circuits
through a unique combination of ceramic materials

LTCC, Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic, is a multi-layer, glass ceramic substrate which is co-fired with low resistance
metal conductors, such as Ag or Cu, at low firing temperatures (less than 1000°C). Sometimes it is referred to as "Glass
Ceramics" because its main composition consists of glass and alumina.

What makes Murata's LTCC special is our unique "Zero Shrinking Sintering Process" which restricts the ceramic shrinkage
to only the z-direction (thickness). The ceramic retains it physical dimensions in the x and y direction. The process provides
superb dimensional accuracy and surface flatness, even in large panel (8"x8") production.

Murata's "Zero Shrinkage LTCC" provides excellent electrical characteristics because of its use of low dielectric ceramic
material and low resistance Ag conductors. The material is lead-free (Pb-free), cadmium-free (Cd-free), RoHS compliant,
environment friendly, and offers good acid and alkaline durability, making it suitable for easy plating.

Murata's LTCC substrates are widely accepted in automotive applications for high reliability controller modules, as well as
RF applications for high density small outline module substrates.

Murata's LTCC Ceramic Technologies

Thin Tape High Accuracy
Technology Stacking

Ceramic Material
Technology

Plating

High Accuracy Zero Shrinkage Design
Conductor Sintering Evaluation
Printing

Ceramic Functional Substrates

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MMuurraattaa''ss LLTTCCCC ssyysstteemmss aarree PPbb//CCdd ffrreeee aanndd eennvviirroonnmmeenntt ffrriieennddllyy..

Composition Zero Shrinkage
Glass (CaO-Al2O3-SiO2-B2O3) + Alumina (Al2O3)
LTCC
Feature
Low conductive resistance material is used for conductors. Glass Alumina
In resistor printing with RuO2 (Ruthenium Oxide) is available.
Electroless Chemical Plating with Ni/Pd/Au realizes CaO-Al2O3- Firing Al2O3
high reliability conductors that minimize solder leaching. SiO2-B2O3 900°C

Cover Photo: Courtesy of Continental Automotive AG
LFC® is a registered trademark of Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

01 Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics

!Note • Please read rating and !CAUTION (for storage, operating, rating, soldering, mounting and handling) in this catalog to prevent smoking and/or burning, etc. N20E.pdf
• This catalog has only typical specifications. Therefore, please approve our product specifications or transact the approval sheet for product specifications before ordering.
Jan.22,2014
highly integrated substrates
External Conductor
and multi-layer/firing techniques. (Ag+Ni/Pd/Au Plating)

LTCC Flip Chip IC Bare Chip IC
Chip Device

Example Structure by LFC® series

Printed Resistor Internal Conductor (Ag)
(RuO2) Thermal Vias (Ag)

Murata's Zero-Shrinkage LTCC Series Design Rules

Items Units for Substrates Layer Thickness 12.5-160μm
100/100μm
LFC® AWG SWG L/S Surface Layers 75/75μm
100μm
Ceramic Compositions CaO-Al2O3-SiO2-B2O3+Al2O3 Inner Layers 250μm
Conductor Material Ag 150-200μm
Bulk Density (Apparent Specific Gravity) g/cm3 2.9 3.2 Via Diameter 150μm
125μm
3.2 Pitch 150μm
125μm
Flexural Strength Mpa 270 300 450 Via Pad Surface 225μm
Diameter Inner
150μm
Substrate Thickness (Typ.) mm 0.4 to 6.0 0.3 to 1.0 0.1 to 0.35

Thermal Expansion Co-efficient ppm/°C 5.5 7.2 7.2 Via Pad to Conductor Distance

Dielectric Constant (at 1MHz) 7.7 8.8 8.8 Via Pad to GND Surface
Distance Inner

Thermal Co-efficient of Dielectric ppm/°C ≤ 110 150 150
Constant (TCC)
Substrate Edge to Via Center Distance

Q 250 (6GHz) 240 (6GHz) 240 (6GHz) Substrate Edge to Conductor Edge
Distance
Thermal Conductivity W/m sK 2.5 3.5 3.5
Insulation Resistance between Layers Ω ≥ 1010
Break-down Volage kV ≥ 5 (Layer Thickness 300μm)

Murata proposes suitable material for your application.

LTCC Applications High Frequency(RF) Modules Others

Multi-Chip Modules for Automotive PAM: Power Amplifier Modules Camera Modules
FEM: RF Front End Modules Small Outline Tuner Modules
TCU: Transmission Control Unit WiMAX2 Modules Other Thin Profile Modules
EPS: Electronic Power Steering LTE-advanced Modules for Devices and Components
ESC(ABS): Electronic Stability Control IC Tester Boards
EMS: Engine Management System
Various Sensor Modules
Radar Modules
Pressure Sensor

Certifications

ISO9001:2000 ISO14001:2004 ISO/TS16949:2002
Since 1994 Since 2005 Since 2006

Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics 02

!Note • Please read rating and !CAUTION (for storage, operating, rating, soldering, mounting and handling) in this catalog to prevent smoking and/or burning, etc. N20E.pdf
• This catalog has only typical specifications. Therefore, please approve our product specifications or transact the approval sheet for product specifications before ordering.
Jan.22,2014
Murata's LTCC Substrate Technology:
LFC® Series

Murata's LFC® series LTCC substrate meets
high integration and miniaturization requirements
necessary for the automotive industry.

Features

Large panel production 202.0x202.0mm (effective layout area)
High dimensional accuracy
Excellent flatness ±0.05%
High reliability printed
resistors 5μm/4mm SQ

Electro-less Ruthenium Oxide (RuO2) based ink resistors
Ni/Pd/Au plating (accuracy ±1% max. [after trimming],
Embedded components TCR ±100ppm/°C, Sheet resistivity 20-300kΩ/SQ)

Applicable to fine pitch wire bonding &
Au bump flip-chip

Small value capacitors and inductors can be embedded

Pressure-assisted Zero-Shrinkage Sintering

Pressure-assisted Zero-Shrinkage Sintering Method Conventional Sintering Method

The exact pattern can be obtained after sintering Approximately 20% shrinkage in length
(No shrinkage in the panel area - shrinks in thickness only) (Almost 60% shrinkage from the original area)

Dimensional accuracy: ±0.05% Dimensional accuracy: ±0.5% at best

Flatness : 5μm/4mm SQ Flatness : Inner-layer undulation and

Panel size : 202.0x202.0mm max. surface waviness inevitable

LTCC (LFC®) Manufacturing Process

Tape cutting Via formation Via fill printing Pattern printing Stacking

Pressure-assisted Resistor printing Plating Laser trimming Completion
Zero-shrinkage sintering & sintering (in air)

pressure

after sintering

03 Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics

!Note • Please read rating and !CAUTION (for storage, operating, rating, soldering, mounting and handling) in this catalog to prevent smoking and/or burning, etc. N20E.pdf
• This catalog has only typical specifications. Therefore, please approve our product specifications or transact the approval sheet for product specifications before ordering.
Jan.22,2014

Down-sizing through Multi-layer Structure and Fine-line Patterning

Features
Multi-layer Structure Automotive Applications: 4 - 6 ceramic layers
RF Applications: 10 - 25 ceramic layers
Others Wiring Substrate: 5 - 8 ceramic layers

Excellent Board Flatness

Large panel, high dimensional accuracy process

Features

Large panel production : 202.0x202.0mm (effective layout area)

High dimensional accuracy: ±0.05% (dimensional tolerance of a panel)

Excellent flatness : 4mm SQ area ±5μm max.
(including conductor thickness)

LTCC (LFC®) panel

Pb/Cd-free Printed Resistor System

Printed Resistor HTF Series

Features

Resistance accuracy: ±1% max. (after trimming) Pb/Cd free

TCR: ±100ppm/°C Plating durability

Sheet resistivity: 10 - 300kΩ/SQ Printed resistor

Electro-less (chemical) Plating

Chemical (electro-less) plating with ease - Pd/Au
in mass production since 1996 Ni
Ag conductor
Features High heat durable plating for wire-bonding
Ni/Pd/Au plating LTCC (LFC®)

Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics 04

!Note • Please read rating and !CAUTION (for storage, operating, rating, soldering, mounting and handling) in this catalog to prevent smoking and/or burning, etc. N20E.pdf
• This catalog has only typical specifications. Therefore, please approve our product specifications or transact the approval sheet for product specifications before ordering.
Jan.22,2014
Murata's LTCC Substrate Technology:
AWG/SWG Series

Utilized in low profile, small outline RF modules,
the AWG/SWG series features ultra thin ceramic tapes,
multiple material tape lamination and enhanced board strength.

Features

High density embedded For smaller module requirements
RF passive functions s

!Note • Please read rating and !CAUTION (for storage, operating, rating, soldering, mounting and handling) in this catalog to prevent smoking and/or burning, etc. N20E.pdf
• This catalog has only typical specifications. Therefore, please approve our product specifications or transact the approval sheet for product specifications before ordering.
Jan.22,2014

Design Support

Design support on pattern layouts, as well as the embedded functionalities, are available through CAD
and various simulation systems.

Femtetr (Made by Murata) 0 m1 m1 Agilent ADS
freq=890.0MHz
(3D electromagnetic field simulation) dBd(B( -20 m4 dB(S(2,1))=-0.570 (Circuit analysis simulation)
S(2S(1 m5 m4
Zuken CR5000 ,1),)1)) m6 freq=890.0MHz RF Measurement
dB(S(1,1))=-22.750
-40

-60 m5
freq=1.790GHz
dB(S(2,1))=-40.836
-80
m6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 freq=2.700GHz

freq, GHz dB(S(2,1))=-52.513

0 m2 m2
m3 freq=890.0MHz
dBd(B( -20 dB(S(4,2))=-20.349
S(4S(4 m3
,2),)1)) freq=890.0MHz
dB(S(4,1))=-31.352
-40

-60

-80
01234567

freq, GHz

VNA & RF Probe

Prototyping

(Same equipment /process as
Mass Production Line)

RF Characteristics Guarantee

Test patterns are added on the dummy portion of the panel matrix to monitor (PCM)
the RF characteristics and quality of the LTCC module boards.

RF_PCM-lpf RF_PCM-ms

m2 dB(S(1,1)) 0 0.0
0 -10 m1
-20
-30 freq=1.000GHz dB(S(2,1))
-40
-50 m2 dB(S(1,1))x=-33.637 -0.5
-60
m2
0
-10 m1 freq=1.000GHz -1.0
200 dB(S(2,1))=-0.667

dB(S(2,1)) -20 m1 100 -1.5
dB(S(1,1)) freq=640.0MHz
-30 dB(S(1,1))=-40.546 0 -2.0
m3 m2 123456
m1 freq=640.0MHz -100
-40 dB(S(2,1))=-0.117 freq, GHz
-200
m3 phase(S(2,1)) 0 m3
freq=1.840GHz freq= 1.000GHz
dB(S(2,1))=-30.797 phase(S(2,1))=-117.034

-50 1 234 5 6
0 freq, GHz

m3

123456
freq, GHz

Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics 06

!Note • Please read rating and !CAUTION (for storage, operating, rating, soldering, mounting and handling) in this catalog to prevent smoking and/or burning, etc. N20E.pdf
• This catalog has only typical specifications. Therefore, please approve our product specifications or transact the approval sheet for product specifications before ordering.
Jan.22,2014

Cat. No. N20E-3