Laser drilling of printed wiring boards: Final report on work sponsored by Sandia LDRD program

Abstract

Traditionally, electrical connections- between layers of a printed wiring board are formed by mechanically drilling holes through all layers and then plating the resulting structure to provide electrical connections between the layers. The mechanical drilling process is very capital- and labor-intensive and is often a bottleneck in board production. The goal of this program was the development of laser drilling as an alternative to mechanical drilling. Cost advantages and the ability to produce smaller holes were both of interest. Although it had initially been intended to develop all processes at Sandia, suitable emerging processes and materials were identified in industry during the course of the work. Because of these industry efforts, it was decided to terminate the LDRD efforts after the first year of work and to pursue collaborative development efforts with industrial partners. A laser drilling facility is currently being developed at Sandia to pursue this work further.

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