Direct fabrication of electric components on insulated boards by laser microcladding electronic pastes

In this paper, a novel method to fabricate the electronic components directly on insulating boards such as glass, ceramics, and organic laminated boards by laser microcladding electronic pastes was reported. With computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) capability, the conductive metal lines and resistors with different patterns were fabricated successfully by this technique without mask. The experimental results demonstrated that the fabricated conductive lines and resistors have the same properties as those made by conventional thick-film methods and were bonded very well with the substrate. The minimum widths of the conductive lines on ceramic board, glass board, and printed circuit board can reach 20, 40, and 80 /spl mu/m, correspondingly. The maximum rates for laser microcladding can be beyond 50 mm/s. Some typical examples of circuit boards fabricated by this method were illustrated.