1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a support, and more particularly, to an improved support member for supporting a component.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a constant trend to reduce the size of devices in the electronics industry. This trend carries over into ancillary industries that are using more and more electronic devices. One such example is the medical equipment industry, where a premium is placed on microelectronic devices that are used in invasive applications, i.e., devices which are inserted into the human body. These medical devices need to be very small out of necessity, given the size of body passages and many of them are used to monitor active body conditions and hence include one or more sensors.
In medical and other applications, one type of integrated circuit is known as microelectronic mechanical system (“MEMS”) and sensors made of MEMS can be used for monitoring pressures, status, environmental conditions and other parameters. Integrated circuit sensors, such as MEMS sensors, can be made relatively small and thus they can fit within the sensing tip mentioned above. Typically a sensor needs to be attached to a support member and interconnected with wires, which often are connected to conductive traces to which other conductive leads may be attached for receiving and transmitting signals from the sensor to an receiving device. Wire bonding is the form of attachment commonly used in microelectronics to interconnect integrated circuits to circuit board substrates. Wire bonding can also be used to connect microelectronic devices to other elements. Such bonding involves the application of heat and pressure, and sometimes ultrasonic energy to a substrate or element and a wire to form a bond between the two. Due to the pressures involved in wire bonding, however, the material chosen for the support member must have a relatively high compressive strength in order to resist deformation imparted to the support member by the bonding tool during the bonding process. FR4 is a material that is commonly used in the manufacture of printed circuit boards. It can be used as a support member for a variety of electrical components, such as MEMS, and FR4 has a relatively high compressive strength that resists deformation under the pressure of wire bonding. However, FR4 is formed from woven glass which is encapsulated in an epoxy resin and it is difficult to form into complex shapes. Furthermore, depending on the application, FR4 may not be sufficiently biocompatible and FR4 cannot be easily machined to obtain a smooth surface, especially in the miniature environment of the aforementioned devices where the support is about 1 or less mm in thickness, because the material tends to flake when worked, which can lead to coplanarity issues.
Thus other less rigid materials must be used to support these microelectronic devices, particularly in applications where biocompatibility is desired. A material such as a liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) is available in biocompatible formations and can be readily formed and/or machined to provide complex shapes. However, the use of a material having compressive strengths that is significantly lower than a material like FR4 may lead to deformation of the support member, which may affect the operational characteristics of the microelectronic device.
Accordingly, certain individual would appreciate an improved support member that can be used in microelectronic applications.