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US 8,523,046 B1Granted
Forming an array of metal balls or shapes on a substrate
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsPeter A. Gruber, Paul A. Lauro, Jae-Woong Nah
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Abstract
A process and apparatus for forming and transferring metal arrays of balls and shapes is described incorporating molds, tape, injection molded metal such as solder, metal reflow and a mask on a substrate for shearing solidified metal of metal arrays into respective openings in the mask.
Claims11
A method of forming an array of metal balls on a polymer layer comprising:
- selecting a polymer layer;
- positioning a mold substrate having an array of through-hole cavities therein over said polymer layer to form respective cavities comprising sidewalls of said through-hole cavities and a bottom wall of said polymer layer;
- filling said array of through-hole cavities with molten metal;
- solidifying said molten metal;
- removing said mold substrate from over said solidified molten metal and from over said polymer layer whereby solidified molten metal remains on said polymer layer;
- and
- reflowing said solidified molten metal in a gaseous environment to form an array of near spherical metal balls on said polymer layer to minimize a contact area of said respective near spherical metal balls with said polymer layer.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.