Carbon Fiber Electronic Interconnects

Abstract

Carbon fiber is an emerging material in electrical and electronics industry. It has been used as contact in many applications, such as switch, potentiometer, and commutator brush. A new technique of electronics interconnect is developed, with carbon fiber as a conductive medium. This carbon fiber interconnect can provide interconnection between two planes in different levels of electronics packaging, from semiconductor die, substrate, packaged component to printed circuit board. For example, it can provide a separable interconnect between a land grid array (LGA) or ball grid array (BGA) IC package to a printed circuit board, as an LGA or BGA socket. The interconnect device consists of an array of contact pins. Each contact pin consists of a large number of carbon fibers which can act cooperatively to provide a high degree of reliability and predictability to the interconnect function. A nickel coating can be applied over carbon fibers to enhance its conductivity and solderability. Analytical evaluations and experimental mechanical and electrical characterizations have been conducted to conclude that the carbon fiber interconnect is a promising interconnect technique.