Samtec orders ClassOne's Solstice system
ClassOne Technology has received an order from new customer Samtec for a Solstice S8 single-wafer processing system.
Samtec will use the eight-chamber Solstice to process its Glass Core Technology family of products that includes glass interposers, smart glass substrates and microstructured glass substrates. ClassOne expects to deliver the system by the end of the year.
Glass substrates offer high structural integrity, resistance to vibration and temperature, environmental ruggedness, and low electrical loss. Samtec’s proprietary Glass Core Technology process leverages the performance benefits of glass to enable performance-optimised, ultra-miniaturised substrates for next-generation designs. The company’s through-glass-via (TGV)-enabled glass substrates permit the integration of glass and metal into a single wafer, while interposers promote more efficient package interconnects and manufacturing cycle times.
Proprietary hardware within the Solstice system’s plating rotors and reactors will enable Samtec to optimise handling and plating of its glass products in a high-volume manufacturing environment. To enable simultaneous plating using different metals, the Solstice S8 will be configured with multiple reactors including GoldPro, CopperMax, and Gen 4 ECD. In addition to plating, the system will be implemented for surface preparation processes such as metal wet etch, redistribution layers (RDL) on glass, and metal lift-off.
“We investigated a number of options for plating and wet processing of our glass products. ClassOne was the only company capable of meeting our needs,” says Jeremy Wooldridge, vice president, advanced technology, Samtec in a press release. “The flexible Solstice platform’s ability to house multiple processes in one system and unique hardware design makes it ideally suited to accommodate our glass substrates’ requirements.”
