Oki Group, World's First to Launch Thin-Film-Bonding Technology in Volume
Technology to bond dissimilar materials accelerates fabricating of high-density compound circuit devices
Driver IC bonded with thin filmed LED using
"Epi Film bonding" (EFB) technology
Tokyo, Japan, September 7, 2006 -- Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) and OKI Printing Solutions (the brand name for Oki Data Corporation), today announced that they have developed "Epi Film Bonding" (EFB) technology in which thin films are released and bonded on dissimilar materials. Oki Group is the world's first to succeed in high volume production of LED printheads using the EFB technology.
OKI Printing Solutions developed its unique LED array chips for LED printer printheads. In conventional LED printheads, LED array chips and integrated circuit (IC) driver chips are mounted on a printed circuit board and are connected by bonding wires. However, high-density wire bonding and large bonding pads limit the density of LED arrays and printing resolutions.
In the newly developed EFB technology, epifilm LED array chips are bonded with the Si IC wafer by utilizing the intermolecular bonding force. This allows us to produce higher-density and higher-layer semiconductor devices, leading to various high-speed and low-power compound devices. Oki Group also made efforts in shrinking the size of driver IC chips and LED array chips, reducing the density of bonding wires, and reducing the number of chips. The EFB technology also leads to reduced fabrication cost and material cost.
The C3400n, OKI Printing Solutions' high-speed and compact color LED printer adopts the new LED head printheads.
"Epi Film Bonding is a promising technology for the integration of dissimilar materials," said Mikihiko Maeno, President and CEO of Oki Data Corporation. "The volume of the new 600dpi LED printhead is half of that of the conventional LED printheads, and will be equipped in our color and monochrome LED printers that are planned for shipment. By developing this technology further, OKI Printing Solutions plans to develop ultra small printheads of 1200dpi or more to enable higher resolution printing."
Oki Electric, on the other hand, will continue to research this technology to provide smaller, lower power consumption and lower cost semiconductor ICs. Employing the EFB technology eliminates the wire bonding and die-bonding processes, which enable Oki to manufacture higher density compound devices using only photolithography processes. In addition, Oki plans to research super small LED displays.
"EFB technology enables us to make higher density, multi-layered, faster speed, and lower power consumption semiconductors, which brings possibilities in developing various compound circuit ICs," said Harushige Sugimoto, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Oki Electric. "Because this technology has so much potential, we will apply this technology beyond semiconductors. We have launched a research unit that includes our R&D team and other affiliated companies to look into adopting this technology to bond dissimilar materials."
Oki Group will announce this technology at the International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials (SSDM 2006) in Yokohama Japan, starting from September 13, and at the 22nd International Conference on Digital Printing Technologies, and Digital Fabrication 2006 in Denver, Colorado, starting from September 17, 2006. Oki's paper on the EFB technology was published in Electronics Letters Vol. 42, issue 15, on July 20, 2006.
About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Founded in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. With the corporate vision, "Oki, Network Solutions for a Global Society," Oki provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its info-telecom system business, semiconductor business and printer business. All three businesses function as a collective force to create exciting new products and technologies that satisfy a spectrum of customer needs in various markets. Visit Oki's global web site at http://www.oki.com/.
About OKI Printing Solutions (Brand name for Oki Data Corporation)
Founded in 1994, Oki Data Corporation is Japan's printer/MFP manufacturer, with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. Oki Data Corporation provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its printers and Multi-Function-Peripherals. Through its business activities, Oki Data Corporation satisfies a spectrum of customer needs in various markets. Visit OKI Printing Solutions' website at www.okiprintingsolutions.com.
- Part of this research has been conducted by the Research Center for Nanodevices and Systems at Hiroshima University, which was supported by The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Nano Technology Support Project.
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- Contact for Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.:
- For Europe and Americas: Public Relations Division
Phone: +1-408-737-6479 - For Asia and Other Areas: Public Relations Division
Phone: +81-3-3580-8950 - Contact For OKI Printing Solutions:
- Phone: +81-3-5445-6164
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