Analysis and mitigation of stress induced by rapid formation of through glass vias in thin substrates

As communication networks move toward higher frequency bands, thin glass substrates are advancing toward industrial production in packaging and interconnect applications as high-frequency, low-loss materials. While current techniques for the formation of through glass vias (TGVs) allow for efficient drilling of <40 μm diameter holes, there are currently limited commercially viable options for smaller TGVs. Presented herein is a unique approach to forming high aspect ratio TGVs in 10-20 μs for 50 and 100 μm thick glass. This is accomplished by using a high-power quasi-continuous wave (QCW) laser with a simple Gaussian beam profile focusing scheme. Crucially, this approach is compatible with high bandwidth beam steering technologies, i.e., the combination of galvanometers and acousto-optic deflectors (AODs), allowing for simple scaling to industrially viable throughputs of tens of thousands of vias per second for high-density drill patterns. The TGVs have straight, smooth sidewalls, and high uniformity. Birefringence image microscopy is used to further assess the finer quality aspects of the TGVs formed; considerable residual stress embedded around the TGVs was found after laser drilling, which could cause cracking in subsequent process steps. It is demonstrated that the stress can be significantly reduced by either annealing the glass substrate after drilling or drilling at elevated temperatures to mitigate the embedded stress.