Direct Bond Copper (DBC) Technologies

Direct Bond Copper technology that primarily uses copper foil bonded directly to ceramic substrates was originally developed and patented by General Electric Company in the early 1970's and subsequently protected with a series of other patents. Although jewelry makers in fabrication of copper costume jewelry for many years have practiced a similar process, GE was able to patent the technology for its application to ceramics. The technology, which required royalty licensing, offers advantages over traditional thick and thin film metalization technologies for a wide range of modern microelectronic applications. The inherent advantages of using bulk metal copper foil in place of fritted or reactively bonded pastes and economically expensive sputtered metalizations is increasingly finding wide ranging applications across the span of military, commercial, industrial, and automotive industries as engineers readily accept the electrical and thermal properties of a traditionally favorite copper system for electronic circuits. The standard Direct Bond Copper or DBC technology which uses copper foil thicknesses in the range of 0.005 to 0.020 inches is usually specified for high power and high thermal management circuits where the large geometry requirements of 0.015 inch wide lines and spacings can be used. New processes and additional refinements of the process which adapt the inherent advantages of the strong bonding mechanism of the DBC process however, will allow the technology to be adapted for fine line circuitry and will extend its applications to high frequency circuits.

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