Cost effective small via generation-the laser solution

In today's electronics packaging industry, the choice of the technologies of generating smaller vias remains undetermined. Laser drilling is one of the most promising among all small via generation technologies. However, historically laser processing has been viewed as an expensive and slow process. We recently reported a cost effective small via drilling process based on a modified TEA CO/sub 2/ laser. The field test showed the process was reliable and cost effective. The new results from more in-depth experiments are presented in this paper along with the comparison among various laser drilling technologies.