What is a thick film Ceramic PCB?

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Thick film is the thickness of the conductor layer of the Ceramic PCB. Generally speaking, the thickness should be over 10um(micrometers) at least, ranging between 10- 13um. It is thicker than the sputtering technology used in thin film ceramic PCB, but the thickness is still thinner than DBC ceramic PCB or FR4 boards. Using the thick film technology, Ceramic PCBs are manufactured through printing and a high-temperature sintering process, which can allow the resistor, capacitor, conductor, semiconductor, and switchable conductors to be integrated onto the Ceramic substrate. Meanwhile, with the thick film technology, we can make all of the resistors the same value on the board, or set different values for the different resistors on the same PCB.

 How to make a thick film Ceramic PCB?

the metal paste is screen-printed onto the ceramic substrate to form the conductive wiring layer. Then, the printed ceramic substrate undergoes binding and sintering, bonding the metal layer tightly to the ceramic base and forming the final thick film Ceramic substrate

Bond Strength between Metal Wiring Layer and Ceramic Substrate

The adhesion of the metal wiring layer to the ceramic substrate is a characteristic of thick film ceramic substrates. The metal layer is closely bonded to the ceramic substrate to avoid peeling. Thick-film ceramic substrates thus formed have good resistance to heat shock, good thermal stability, and can also be used in high-temperature situations.

 Metal Wiring Layer Thickness

The metal wiring layer on the thick-film ceramic substrate has a thickness of about 10–20 μm (Commonly, if a thicker metal layer is required, multiple screen-printing steps are performed). The thickness of the metal layer is substantially uniform, meeting the standards for most electronic packaging needs.

Summary:

Thick film ceramic PCBs are commonly used in the automotive electronics field and other applications, because they require only a simple fabrication process, and thus are inexpensive, and have excellent thermal shock resistance. But the offering of available circuit accuracy is poor for high-precision applications. So, when using thick-film ceramic PCB, you must weigh the advantages and disadvantages when applied to different requirements.

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