Your No.1 IC Substrate Manufacturer in China

Your Direct IC Substrate Supplier

If you’re looking for a reliable IC substrate manufacturer in China, you can trust PCBMay. We’re one of the world-class manufacturers and suppliers in China, with more than ten years’ experience. We can be your one-stop factory and expect a hassle-free purchase experience.

PCBMay IC substrate covered a wide range of applications. A unique baseboard is usable in a bare integrated circuit or IC chip. It connects to the circuit board, with various functions, including reinforcing, protecting, or supporting the IC chip, capturing the semiconductor IC chip, and routing inside to fasten PCB and chips.

Our IC substrates are available in different types. Choose from BGA IC substrates, CSP IC substrates, FC IC substrates, flex IC substrates, MCM IC substrates, and so on. All are available at more competitive prices and the best quality. If your project requires IC chip protection, our standard options are your ideal choice.

Since we are dedicated many years to PCB development, we can provide IC substrates with features suitable for your needs. Custom option for this solution is also available for you. From IC substrates prototype to mass production, you know you’re in good hands with PCBMay!

Our IC substrates feature a longer shelf-life, aluminum wire bonding, excellent solder-ability, and fine pitch technology. Considered the most advanced PCB solution, IC substrates have gained popularity in the electronics updates and telecommunications industries.

They are widely applicable in electronic products such as laptops, smartphones, industrial control, tablet PC, military, and aerospace. It has lightweight, advancing, and thin functions for all applications.

PCBMay always offers engineering and sales support to ensure timely deliveries. We can also accommodate your small to large orders.

Do you have a specific budget and specific needs regarding IC substrates? Would you mind letting us know?

Feel free to contact us.

IC Substrate: A Complete FAQ Guide

IC substrate is a monolithic integrated circuit that is also referred to as a chip or microchip. This integrated circuit has a set of electronic circuits on a tiny semiconductor material. It provides way more functionality and advantages and so its use is increasing day by day.

PCBMay is one of the largest manufacturing companies of IC substrates in China. We produce high-quality products with our advanced technologies and modern processes.

If you are eager to know about IC substrates, go through this FAQ guide.

What Is IC Substrate?

It is a type of very advanced printed circuit board. The use of IC Substrates is increasing day by day.

IC Substrate is the abbreviation of Integrated Circuit chip. It is one kind of baseboard. This board is utilized to package bare integrated circuit chips. These connect chips with the circuit board.

IC Substrates

Nowadays this substrate is mostly used with any layer of flex-rigid PCB and HDI PCB. We can see a wide range of uses of IC substrates in telecommunication and electrical devices.

What Is The Classification Of IC Substrate?

This is a kind of advanced PCB used in a wide range of applications. We can classify these IC substrates by package types, material attributes, and bonding technology. Here are the classifications:

i) Classification By Package Types

• CSP IC Substrate

A type of single-chip package that has a miniaturized scale and is lightweight is called CSP IC Substrate. It has a similar size to an IC. Telecommunication, memory, and electronic products mostly use these Substrates.

• MCM IC Substrate

MCM is the short form of a multiple-chip module. MCM Integrated Circuit Substrates have chips with various functions in one single package. These are thin, miniature, light, and short having only one package.

MCM IC substrates can be a good option for its small size attributes. However, it doesn’t work well in thermal dissipation, fine routing, signal interference, etc. The reason behind this is there are multiple chips packaged in one single package.

• FC IC Substrate

FC is an abbreviated form of Flip Chip. This type of IC Substrates is a package that works by flipping chips. These feature low loss of circuit, low signal interference, effective thermal dissipation, and good performance.

• BGA IC Substrate

BGA Integrated Circuit substrates are capable of increasing chip pins significantly. IC packages with chip pins over 300 use this type of IC Substrates. BGA Integrated Circuit Substrates work perfectly in electrical performance and thermal dissipation.

ii) Classification By Material

• Rigid
• Ceramic
• Flex

iii) Classification By Bonding Types

• Wire Bonding
• Tape Automated Bonding or TAB
• Flip Chip or FC Bonding

What Are The Materials Used In IC Substrates?

They use electrolytic copper foil for its board. The copper foil needs to be uniform and ultra-thin.

The second raw material for an IC is the substrate. The substrate of an ic board is a copper-clad laminate. This laminate is divided into three substrates: co-fired ceramic, flexible film, and hard substrates.

Materials In IC Substrate

To name some of the substrate materials, there are MIS material, ABF material, BT material, PI or polyimide material, PE or polyester material, resin, alumina, silicon carbide, nitriding aluminum, and some other ceramic materials. We use these different materials in different IC substrates.

These materials provide high-frequency characteristics, thermal conductivity properties, heat resistance, and dimensional stability to the Integrated Circuit substrates. Different materials contain different CTE which is the coefficient of thermal expansion.

Manufacturers use materials with different properties according to the requirements of the applications.

What Are The Applications Of An IC Substrate?

They have a wide range of applications in modern technology. Because of its thin layer, advanced functionality, and lightweight, the use is increasing day by day.  As modern technology is going towards small sizes with higher functionality, this type of substrate has a great impact on that.

The telecommunication industry uses these in many applications. Smartphones, tablets, laptops use these in their applications. The medical care industry, aerospace, industrial control, military, and many more fields use IC substrates.

To be more specific, MEMS, LED chips, analog, power IC, memory chips, and digital currency markets have applications of IC substrates. It has usage in high-end large chips like GPU, CPU, Chipsets. Space satellites, cruise missiles, carrier rockets, military chips as well as consumer electronics, automotive electronics, and other chips also use these for different applications.

What Is The Manufacturing Process Of IC Substrate?

There are mainly three types of manufacturing processes. The three processes are subtractive process/ SP, additive process / AP, and modified semi-additive process / MSAP. We will discuss the three types of manufacturing processes here.

Manufacturing Process

● Subtraction Method or SP

This is the most traditional process of manufacturing. In this process, you need to plate a copper layer of a certain thickness on copper-clad laminate. Then you need to use a dry film to preserve the through-hole and circuit.

You should etch the nonrequired copper sheet. While etching the copper sheet, part of the copper layer will also get etched. To avoid this problem, the minimum line space of the must be more than  50 μm or 2mil.

We use this manufacturing method only in ordinary PCB, HDI, FPC products, and applications.

● Addition Method Or AP

In this manufacturing method, you have to expose the circuit to an insulating substrate that contains photosensitive catalysts. Then you carry out a particular chemical copper deposition on the outer thick circuit. You need not etch in this method.

You can obtain very high accuracy in your IC substrates by this manufacturing method. Your ic substrates will be less than 20 μm following this method. Basically, to reach a thickness of about 12 μM, you can follow this method.

This manufacturing method is highly used in today’s days for process and substrate flow. This method costs low but gives high output. Manufacturers follow this method to produce FC or WB IC substrates.

● Modified semi-additive process or MSAP

The last process is MSAP, in which you require electroplating a thin copper layer on a copper-clad laminate. By doing so you need not electroplate the areas twice, coat them with anti-corrosion coating. The copper layer remains very thin at the start of the electroplating.

Compared with the other two processes, this process gives a high yield and costs less. This is the most useful manufacturing process for fine circuit boards. For fabricating WB, CSP, FC, and many more IC substrates boards, manufacturers use this manufacturing technology.

To know more about IC substrates manufacturing, watch the following video.

What Are The Manufacturing Difficulties Of IC Substrate?

Well, there are some difficulties for manufacturing IC substrates that are higher than standard PCB. The reason is the advanced functions of IC substrates and the implementation of its high performance. Here we will see some of the manufacturing difficulties of IC substrates.

● Thickness

Ic substrate is thin and very fragile, that is why it easily deforms. This problem is more severe when the board’s thickness is less than 0.2mm. Manufacturers need to make breakthroughs concerning the layer position system, lamination parameters, and shrinking of the board to control the lamination thickness and substrate warpage.

● Solder Mask

Here the manufacturer needs to deal with solder mask printing, via filling technologies. There should be less than a 10um surface height difference between pad and solder mask. The difference should also not exceed 15 um.

● Copper Plating And Patterning

You need to take steps regarding fine line fabrication, uniformity of copper plate thickness, circuitry compensation, and control technologies.

● Surface Finishing

The surface finish should maintain a uniform thickness all over. Their surface finish should be either ENIG or ENEPIG.

● Microvia

Manufactures put concern in the plated copper filling, conformal mask, laser-drilled micro blind via technologies in this manufacturing process.

● Product Reliability Test and  Inspection Capability

IC substrates need different inspection types of equipment. As well as the manufacturing company needs reliable and efficient engineers to produce IC substrates.

Manufacturing Difficulties Of IC substrate

Lastly, we can say  They need more requirements than any standard PCB. Manufacturers should have advanced technologies to overcome the difficulties of manufacturing and to master them.

What Is The Thickness Of IC Substrates?

They are made of layers. These layers of an ic can be about 0.000005 to 0.1 mm thick. The final chip can have 30 or more layers.

Thickness of IC Substrate

The copper foil used in them needs to be ultrathin. It should maintain a thickness of 9.25um usually. They can have copper foil with at least 1.5  μ m, and it can go up to 18 to 35  μ m.

What Is The Use Of Surface Finish In IC Substrate?

Surface finish is a very crucial fact in fabricating IC substrates. The manufacturing company should consider some facts to use surface finish in the fabrication of IC substrates.

Surface Finish In IC Substrate

Firstly the surface finish for IC substrates should have uniform thickness all over. The thickness must not be uneven. Manufactures mostly use either ENIG or ENEPIG for the surface finish.

What Is Packaging In IC Substrate?

Packaging is very important in IC substrates. IC packaging refers to the material insertion process in semiconductor devices. It is the finishing stage in semiconductor devices’ production.

Packaging In IC Substrate

During ic packaging, the manufacturer covers the semiconductor block in a package. This package protects them from damaging the outer elements and the effect of aging. IC packaging is specially engineered in order to increase the signal delivery as well as to protect the semiconductor block.

Watch the following video to learn more about IC packaging.

What Is The Difference Between IC Substrate And PCB?

While there is a common misconception that IC substrates and printed circuit boards are the same things, you should know that they are not the same thing. The integrated circuit substrate is soldered on a printed circuit board. PCB is the carrier of IC substrates.

IC is a miniaturized electric circuit. The internal chip used in an IC is very tiny and so it is hard to connect it directly to the PCB. But you can easily connect the IC to the PCB.

We use PCB in most electric devices, well in almost every device. PCB can be of all sizes and can be mounted on any device. PCB fixes the small parts, as well as connects each other.

PCB connects them and discrete the components to form a large working circuit for a device. While on an IC we see an integration of circuits on a chip. Once the IC is internally damaged, the chip is destroyed as well.

What Is The Capability Of An IC Substrate?

Since they are a very advanced type of printed circuit board, it is actually capable of a lot more things. IC substrates come with a thinner structure and higher functionality. And so it is applicable anywhere you need it.

They mainly package the bare integrated circuit chip. It is able to connect the chip and the printed circuit board. IC substrate is basically an intermediate high functionality product.

Capability Of IC Substrate

IC substrates are able to have numerous layers with little thickness and weight. That is why it is efficient for modern technologies. It provides multiple functionalities to an application, so it is suitable anywhere.

There is routing inside the IC substrates to connect the chip and the printed circuit board. It can support, reinforce, and protect the chip by providing a thermal dissipation tunnel. IC substrates are able to capture semiconductor integrated circuit chips as well.

How To Design An IC Substrate?

IC substrate is a microelectronic device. It consists of diodes, capacitors, transistors, resistors, inductors, and many more little parts. All these parts are connected to each other by a significant process.

Design Of A IC Substrate

The manufacturer then fabricates the whole system on a dielectric substrate or a tiny semiconductor chip. The total circuit is then packaged in a shell. Then you get a microstructure circuit with multiple functionalities.

The Manufacturer needs to structurally integrate all the components into IC substrates. In this way, an IC substrate can be designed.

Why Is IC Substrate Used?

We use IC substrateS for their long life, lightweight, small size, less lead wire, good performance, high reliability, low cost, etc which are good for mass production. Some of the reasons why we use them are as follows.

● Simple Circuit

The product or application’s design, installation get simplified by using them for circuit boards. The whole machine or application appears simpler.

● High Reliability

They provide high reliability for the whole circuit. It improves the consistency and performance of the circuit.

● Cost-effective

They give high performance and high functionality but they cost less. This substrate is perfect for high gain and fewer investment products.

● Low Failure Rate

Their failure rate is lesser and so the whole circuit’s failure rate is reduced to some point.

● Low Energy Consumption

They have less power consumption, low price, and small volume. Circuit with IC substrates consumes much less power and provides high functionality.

There are many more reasons when could not list in this short scope.
What Are The Packaging Types In IC Substrates?

You can categorize IC packaging in various ways based on the formation of IC substrates. In that sense, there are mainly two types of IC packaging, the substrate type, and the lead frame type.

Packaging Types In IC Substrate

There are some other types of packaging beyond the basic structure of ic substrate. Different categories distinguishing secondary interconnection of ic packaging are as follows.

● Dual-inline Packaging

This packaging is for assemblies where the pin goes through the hole.

● Pin-grid Array

This packaging is for socketing.

● Quad Flat Packaging

It is A lead-frame packaging of a leadless variety.

● Chip Scale Packaging

Chip-scale packaging is a direct surface mountable and single-die package. It has a smaller area.

● Multichip Packaging

Multichip packaging integrates multiple ICs. It discrete semiconductor dies and components onto a substrate. A multiple packaging works as a larger ic substrate.

● Quad Flat No-lead Packaging

It is  A tiny package that is the size of a chip. We use this packaging for mounting surfaces.

● Area Array Packaging

This packaging provides maximum performance. It also conserves space.

These are not all. There are many more types of packaging in IC substrate.

What Is The Difference Between Rigid And Tape Package IC Substrates?

Package in IC substrates come in two varieties; tape and rigid. There are significant differences between rigid and tape package IC substrates.

Tape substrate is flexible and slim, but rigid substrates are defined and firm. substrates were made of ceramic materials traditionally. Nowadays most substrates consist of organic material.

Tape substrates are an alternative to rigid substrates. Tape substrates mainly consist of polyimide and some other types of materials. These materials are mostly durable and temperature-tolerant.

Tape substrates are able to move simultaneously and carry circuits. For these reasons, disk drives and other devices prefer tape substrates. Devices that need to carry circuits fast and constant movement use tape substrates.

There is another advantage of tape substrates. Tape substrates are extremely lightweight, which makes the ICs light. Tape substrates do not add a bit of weight to their applied surface.

What Are The Alternative Materials And Methods For IC Substrate?

The traditional material and method for IC packages in ic substrate is the lead frame lead finish IC packaging. Manufacturers are now using new methods and materials for packaging in IC substrates. Some common packaging as the alternative materials and methods are as follows.

● Small Outline Packaging

This packaging is a thin small outline package which is also called TSOP. TSOP is an IC component. It has a rectangular shape and small pins along the horizontal edges.

IC substrates with flash memory and power RAM commonly use TSOPs.

● Dual Inline Packaging

These packages have two rows of electric pins. The electric pins are along the horizontal edges of a rectangular IC substrate piece. An inline dual packaging solders to a printed circuit board with either a socket or a through-hole.

● Ball Grid Arrays

It is a surface-mounted packaging that carries chips. Most computer equipment uses this packaging. The entire surface of a circuit board can mount on ball grid array boards.

This packaging provides a higher speed than most IC packages because of its shorter ball connections. USB cards like RAM, speaker cards mostly use BGAs.

● Quad Flat Packaging

It is a square and flat packaging that is also called QFP. QFP is a component of IC substrate. It leads four edges of a board.

You can not mount Through-holes on QFP. sockets are very unavailable for this packagings. Depending on the pinch range, QFPs can have pins from number 32 to 304.

What Is Die-attached Material In IC Substrate?

Packaging in ic substrates has two main functions. One is to protect the die from external damage, and the other is distributing the inputs and outputs to a fine pitch.

Die-attach Materials In IC Substrate

Die-attach materials are used in IC packaging to avoid outgassing. These materials can be either film or liquid. Die-attach materials are able to degrade the wire bond quality in an IC substrate.

This also works as a stress buffer to the ic. If the CTE incase doesn’t match with the ic substrates, the die doesn’t fracture.

There are different processes available to apply die-attach materials. In most cases, manufacturers apply die-attach materials to assemblies. These materials must be thermally conductive.

The materials provide electric conductivity on some assemblies. Manufacturers use this material to prevent the spots from turning hot. Well, both the film and liquid die-attach materials help to protect the die from damage and resist outgassing.

What Are The Wire Bond Assembly Types In IC Substrate?

Wire bond assembly is another important fact in fabricating an ic substrate. There are basically three format types of wire bond assembly in ic substrate. The formats are as follows.

• Ultrasonic Wedge Bonding
• Thermo-compression Bonding
• Thermosonic Ball Bonding

Bond Assembly Types In IC Substrate

These three assembly types come with different capabilities. Manufacturers generally use gold wire for wire bonding, in some cases copper wire. Nowadays the use of aluminum wire is increasing as well.

How To Choose The Right Manufacturer For IC Substrate?

It is a vital step to choose the right manufacturer for ic substrates. As it is a delicate and fragile electric part, you should choose professional manufacturers for the ic.

Right Manufacturer For IC Substrate

Check if the manufacturer is known for advanced technologies. If they have proper instruments to perfectly prepare the IC substrate. Check if they have worked with your required application field.

Skilled engineers can make the right ic substrate for you. Make sure they can customize according to your requirements. If the manufacturing process is versatile so that you can add or delete according to your design.

Also, check for the experience of the manufacturing company. These are some vital aspects to choose the right manufacturer for IC substrate.

Conclusion

We hope now you have a clear idea of IC substrates by going through this guide. However if you have more queries or you want to know our services, feel free to contact us. We will be glad to help you.