LTCC stands for a ceramic material system used as a low-cost substrate technology in electrical and electronic engineering. It can accommodate an almost infinite number of stacked layers. The conductor paths are usually made of gold or silver thick film pastes. The metallization layers are silkscreen printed one by one onto the unfired "green" ceramic tape; once the setup has been stacked and printed, it is fired in the process oven. The sintering temperature for LTCC is below 900°C, a relatively low temperature which allows the use of gold and silver conductive traces. LTCC technology is especially useful for microwave applications because ceramic substrates and gold or silver conductive layers have excellent physical and electrical properties. LTCC also has the advantage of competitive material and processing costs compared to other substrate systems like HTCC and printed circuitboards (PCB / PTFE), such as laminated substrates.

The advantages of LTCC:

• low permittivity tolerance

•  good thermal conductivity

• low TCE (adapted to silicon and GaAs)

• excellently suited for multilayer modules

•  integration of cavities and and passives such as R-, L-, and C-components
  

• very robust against mechanical and thermal stress (hermetically sealed)

• composeable with fluidic, chemical, thermal, and mechanical functionalities 

• low material costs for silver conductor paths

•  low production costs for medium and large quantities

IMST -related LTCC -services:

• development of LTCC based modules, e.g. radar frontends
  

• development of planar LTCC array antenna structures

• LTCC prototyping & small volume manufacturing

• RF characterisation of LTCC substrate materials and circuits
  

• modelling, design and optimisation of LTCC components
  

• studies and research projects on LTCC advancements

• courses and seminars on LTCC design & manufacturing

• mediating between customers and LTCC component manufacturers or foundry sercices
  

• support from the product definition up to the production phase
  

Further information on LTCC or on the product Web page can be found at www.ltcc.de.