Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.

Annamarie Lightfoot

Wendell Eugene Rhine

William L Robbins

William D Goodhue

John S Haggerty

George B Kenney

Dennis D Rathman

R Allen Murphy

Julia Sigalovsky

An electronic device package is provided, consisting of reaction bonded silicon nitride structural and dielectric components and conductor, resistor, and capacitor elements positioned with the package structural components. The package consists of a ceramic package base characterized by a dielectric constant less than 6, of reaction bonded silicon nitride, or a heat spreader material. An electrical conductor is positioned on, embedded in, or attached to the package base for making electrical contact to an electronic device supported on the base and in preferred embodiments, a resistor is attached to the package base. The invention also provides package sidewalls connected to the package base, preferably of reaction bonded silicon nitride, and at least one electrical conductor extending to an outside surface of the package sidewalls for making electrical contact to an electronic device supported by the package base. The reaction formed electronic device packages of the invention provide the ability to support high device signal frequencies, high device operational temperatures, and high environmental temperatures, due to the characteristics of the package materials. The reaction formed electronic device packages of the invention may be produced with a nitriding process during which the overall package structure exhibits minimal shrinkage. As a result, the reaction formed electronic device packages of the invention may be shaped to finished dimensions before the nitriding process with complicated and tight-tolerance geometries of package structural, conducting, resistive, and capacitive components.

Net-shape ceramic processing for electronic devices and packages

A method of producing electronic device packages is provided, consisting of the steps of shaping a package preform and heating the package preform in a nitrogen-containing atmoshpere to nitride the package preform. The shaped package preform may consist of package base, sidewall, conductor, resistor, or capacitor components. The package base and sidewall components may be formed of silicon powder. The method also accommodates the step of inserting a semiconducting material into the package preform and heating the semiconducting material component along with the package preform. The inserted semiconducting material component may be processed to define active electronic device areas on the component either before or after the step of heating the shaped package preform and inserted semiconducting material component. The package production methods of the invention provide the ability to produce reaction bonded structural and dielectric package components by way of a nitriding process that causes minimal overall shrinkage of the package. As a result, reaction formed electronic device packages of the invention may be shaped to finished dimensions before the nitriding process with complicated and tight-tolerance geometries of package structural, conducting, resistive, and capacitive components. The package production methods of the invention also provide the ability to interleave electronic device and packaging manufacturing sequence steps, resulting in increased manufacturing efficiency, as well as improved performance in the devices and packages produced. Device substrates or partially fabricated devices may be embedded into semi-finished packages, whereby completion of device fabrication coincides with completion of package fabrication. This makes possible the fabrication of active devices and circuits in a fully packaged environment.

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Andover, MA, United States of America

Annamarie Lightfoot