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Article: Conductive Anodic Filament (CAF): the threat to miniaturization of the electronics industry; The continuing miniaturization process in the electronics industry is threatened by CAF. We need to address the CAF issue collectively as an industry since CAF often results from process and material interactions.
- Article from:
- CircuiTree
- Article date:
- December 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 BNP Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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History of CAF
Inner-laminate electromigration has been a part of the PCB industry since the invention of PCBs. Bell Labs first identified it in 1976. In the 70s and 80s there was little concern about CAF since feature sizes along with via wall-to-hole wall spaces were fairly large, and the conductive filaments had to travel longer distances to create failures (current leakage or shorts).
Today's smaller feature sizes increase the potential of catastrophic failures due to inner/outer laminate conductive filaments formed in the presence of humidity, ionic impurities and bias. This is of particular concern in the medical field where hearing aids, pace ...