Key Research Areas

Electronics are everywhere, and today they need to be lightweight and show long-lasting functional reliability. In Fraunhofer IZM's System on Flex working group, we develop technologies for mounting tiny components on and in flexible circuit carriers made of different materials. Research focuses include fine pitch assembly technologies for unpackaged ICs using soldering and adhesive bonding as well as direct embedding of these chips. We have many years of experience in material selection, process development, and reliability testing for ACA, NCA, and ICA flip-chip bonding. Environmental considerations, lower temperature bonding techniques and the use of novel biocompatible substrate materials , e.g. TPU, LCP or Parylene, are increasingly playing a major role, both for consumer products and for e.g. disposable medical devices such as sensor patches.

In our assembly clean room, a wide variety of high-precision equipment is available for the assembly of components onto thin flexible substrates and their subsequent testing (electrical, mechanical), depending on the requirements for connection technology. Application-oriented, we perform reliability tests and failure analyses in order to continuously improve technologies and products.