TY - JOUR A1 - Matz, R. A1 - Rabe, Torsten A1 - Töpfer, J. A1 - Ziesche, S. T1 - Circuit-Board-Integrated Transformers Design and Manufacture N2 - Transformers couple two sections of a circuit by electromagnetic induction. They are widely used to either transform alternating voltage levels or to transmit power or signals across galvanic isolation. Both of these functions are essential for the operation of sensors and controllers. Covering all aspects from idea to circuit performance and from design to manufacture, this paper presents the first comprehensive description of the making of miniaturized, rugged, up-to-100W transformers for embedding into multilayer circuit boards. For circular coils, the well-manageable Ampere-Laplace law is shown to yield reliable designs, predicting correctly the performance of manufactured hardware. This enables fast design without lengthy finite element modelling. In the low-power linear regime, basic relations describe how the device’s characteristics evolve from the material properties and device structure. While scattering Parameters are useful for the analysis of isolated transformers with their intrinsic parasitics, the interaction with the components of the final circuit and the aspects of power and efficiency are addressed by chain matrixes. While these design rules are similar for multilayer boards of different material (like epoxy, Teflon, ceramics), the manufacturing of ceramic board transformers is considered here in detail. Low-temperature-cofired ceramic (LTCC) boards being sintered at 900 °C are particularly suited for harsh environments with chemical or thermal stress as frequently found at sensor positions. The transformer performance usually benefits from or even requires an integrated ceramic core of higher permeability, a ferrite, to shape the magnetic flux. Methods to sinter ferrites inside a dielectric ceramic multilayerandto measure their performance are therefore described in detail.Asthe sintering behaviour of dielectricandmagnetic ceramics differs considerably, their simultaneous sintering is challenging.However, the sintering temperatures of the usefulMnZnand NiZnCu ferrites can be lowered to that of the dielectric material with only moderate loss of permeability by glass additives. Furthermore, thermal mismatch between materials causes catastrophic failure or at least stress and loss of magnetic performance during cooling to room temperature after sintering. This is avoidable by either adjusting the thermal expansion coefficient of the ferrite or by enclosing the ferrite between stressreleasing separation layers.We present the state of the art in materials development according to the first approach as well as fully functional devices made with the second technique. Other applications not directly addressed but well related to this work are characterized by low load resistance in relation to the coil resistance of the transformer. Efficient power transmission then requires that technological solutions are applied to achieve the lowest possible resistive loss inside the coils by an enlarged conductor cross-section. As this is particularly challenging for LTCC boards, a technique is discussed to fabricate conductor traces with a thickness larger than their width. KW - Multilayer ceramic technology KW - LTCC KW - Transformer PY - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4416/JCST2019-00071 SN - 2190-9385 VL - 11 IS - 1 SP - 44 EP - 61 PB - Göller Verlag CY - Baden-Baden AN - OPUS4-50751 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hajian, A. A1 - Konegger, T. A1 - Bielecki, K. A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Rabe, Torsten A1 - Schwarz, S. A1 - Zellner, C. A1 - Schmid, U. T1 - Wet chemical porosification with phosphate buffer solutions for permittivity reduction of LTCC substrates N2 - The wireless high-frequency technology requires a robust, cost-effective, and highly integrated substrate technology offering the capability for areas of tailored permittivity. The wet-chemical porosification of low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) substrates offers such an approach by locally embedding air. Porosification of LTCC in both extremely acidic and alkaline media has been investigated in previous works. However, for improving the available knowledge on the porosification of LTCC with H3PO4 as a standard and a widely used etching solution, the impact of solution concentration was systematically investigated and a substantial improvement in the etching performance was achieved. Moreover, in the present study, for the first time, the intermediate pH values, and the impact of pH as a key parameter on the etching process have been investigated. For this purpose, the applicability of phosphate buffer solution (PBS) as a prospective novel etchant mixture for the porosification of a commercially available LTCC tape (Ceramtape GC) was explored. Valuable information about surface morphology, crystalline composition, and the pore structure of the etched LTCCs was gathered employing scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and mercury porosimetry measurements. Based on these findings, the performance of PBS-based etchant systems towards the generation of porous LTCCs combining high depths of porosification with acceptable surface characteristics for subsequent metallization is demonstrated. Based on the obtained results, by application of a 0.2 mol L−1 solution of PBS, the effective relative permittivity of test samples with a thickness of approximately 600 µm and a porosification depth of 186 µm from each side, could be reduced up to 10% of its initial “as fired” value. Also, based on the measurement results and by measuring the depth of porosification, the permittivity of the etched layer was estimated to show a reduction of up to 22% compared to the initial “as fired” value. KW - LTCC KW - Porosification KW - Wet chemical etching KW - Permittivity reduction PY - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.158059 SN - 0925-8388 VL - 863 SP - 158059 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-51800 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -