Autonomous driving and self-driving cars represent one prominent example for the use of microelectronics and sensors, most importantly RADAR and LiDAR sensors. Their respective markets have a big potential, e.g. it is estimated that the market size of LiDAR in automotive will double itself in the next two years. The public awareness and the industrial need for further miniaturization of such sensor packages is the main driver of ongoing efforts in the automotive sector to be able to integrate such devices into the car body like in the bumpers, grilles and exterior lamps (headlights & rear lamps) instead of attaching them (e.g. on top of the car in case of LiDAR device). Safety (for the driver and others) is the most important key aspect of the automotive sector. Therefore, highly-value and high-performance RADAR and LiDAR systems are required for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) as well as autonomous cars. Current bottlenecks are relevantly large size of such sensor devices, their weight and power consumption. Since these factors are highly limited within cars, further miniaturization and improving functionality and efficient use of resources is highly demanded.
Specific objective 1 – Improving speed, accuracy and reliability of pick and place assembly techniques. The objective was fulfilled by the integration of additional sensors inside the P&P equipment et BESI, e.g. height and tilt enabling the fast commercialization of novel assembly processes.
Specific objective 2 – Improving automation level, process reliability and lowered rejection rate via feedback control. The objective was fulfilled by the realization of a system that can detect defects on a macroscopic level, like airborne particles curing issues or delamination of resist. The setup includes a high resolution imager and two different illumination types combined in a advanced unit for high response of the defects in a very compact dimension.
Specific objective 3 – Improved miniaturization level, fabrication time and efficient use of resources enabled by additive manufacturing. The objective was fulfilled by validation of the Tinker concept - the first integration of the beam scanning device (OPA) on a silicon interposer, so a photonic device on an electronic one using TSV. AM processes we used to realization of 3D radar waveguides and chip wire-bonding using inkjet and NIL. Those new integration processes allow denser, flexible and cheaper processing of the sensor packages.
Specific objective 4: fabrication of RADAR sensor packages. Fabrication of 3D radar waveguides by inkjet printing, precise P&P processing, and gap filling supported by machine learning algorithms, followed by inkjet conductive printing or NIL for wire-bonding, was successfully demonstrated using the TINKER platform.
Specific objective 5: fabrication of LIDAR sensor package. This realization of OPA on a silicon wafer was successfully integrated, and beam steering for LIDAR application was demonstrated.
