SBIR-STTR Award

EPIC Technologies proposes to develop a flexible high density multichip assembly technology capable of being bent and twisted to conform to the available space in a constrained military of commercial electronic system. EPIC will adapt its basic chips first multichip assembly technology to meet the requirements of a conformable assembly. EPIC's basic chip first technology has been previously developed and is now being used to produce fieldable portable systems. The technology comprises a high density additive printed circuit technology applied to a substrate containing bare integrated circuit chips. The main goal of the Phase I effort is to demonstrate the feasibility of the conformable technology by producing a prototype. This prototype will consist of existing passive chips which can be connected into daisy chains in the conformable assembly. Prototypes will be designed, fabricated, tested, subjected to bending and torsional stress and retested to confirm the reliability of the connections.A second goal of the Phase I effort is to identify military and commercial applications of the conformable technology. This will be accomplished by reviewing the forthcoming capability with government and commercial entities during Phase I.

Keywords:
MCM wireless packaging multichip conformable mixed signal

Phase I of the program demonstrated the feasibility of producting a conformable multichip assembly suitable for use in space and shape constrained military and commercial systems. Feasibility was demonstrated in the fabrication and test of a passive circuit comprising twelve EPIC Chip Scale Packages (CSPs) and EPIC's High Performance Flex Circuit. The CSPs were mounted on the flex circuit using standard high volume surface mount equipment. The conformable assemblies were bent to a l/2" radius with no degradation in performance. The Phase I program also identified several key applications of the technology including canister mounted Electronic Warfare Systems, Communications Systems and Unattended Sensors mounted in shell casings or miniature air or ground vehicle housings.The Phase I accomplishments have positioned EPIC to develop a viable commercial Chip Scale Packaging and Assembly technology suitable for space and shape constrained applications in Phase II. Phase II will also produce a conformable system prototype.EPIC anticipated that its Chip Scale Package technology will be broadly accepted by the semiconductor industry and that over time many semiconductor manufacturers will offer a variety of their products in the EPIC package.

Keywords:
CSP packaging off-the-shelf chip scale packaging wireless electronic warfare conformable multichip