Pilot line for micro-transfer-printing of functional components on wafer level

ended

The “Pilot Line for Micro-Transfer-Printing of Functional Components on Wafer Level” project (MICROPRINCE) is focused on creation of a pilot line for heterogeneous integration of smart systems by micro-transfer-printing (µTP) in a semiconductor foundry manufacturing environment. Functional components like processed III/V devices, optical filters, and special sensors will be transfer printed to demonstrate the capabilities of the technology and pilot line. Based on several EU and national research activities demonstrating successfully the feasibility of µTP technology in a scientific and laboratory environment, the MICROPRINCE consortium has the goal to setup the first worldwide open access foundry pilot line for heterogeneous integration by µTP and to demonstrate its capability on five defined target application scenarios. For this purpose, the consortium consisting of 13 partners from four different countries combine their expertise along the value chain from materials and equipment, technology and semiconductor processing, integrated circuit and system design, test and application. The partners are industrial companies incl. SME’s, accompanied by leading research institutes with a clear focus on production and application in Europe. The working principle of the micro-transfer-printing technology is to use a micro-structured elastomer stamp to transfer microscale functional components from their native substrates onto non-native substrates. The lateral dimensions of the functional components can range from a few microns to a few hundreds of microns with thicknesses of only a few microns. The native substrate contains the functional components to be printed and is flexible in size and material. The MICROPRINCE pilot line is acting as a regional and nationwide competence cluster for a novel technology with European dimensions for heterogeneous system integration and supports the ECS industry to reach leadership in key applications.