The principal steps of thick film technology are screen printing of pastes onto ceramic substrates and - after leveling and drying - firing them at a typical temperature of 850 deg C.

 

Screen printing is the basic layer deposition and patterning process in thick film technology. It followed by the firing process, which fabrication step creates the layer structure and - as a consequence, together with the materials characteristics - defines the properties of the thick film components.

 

In this module the thick film materials, namely the ceramic substrate types; and the conductive, resistive and dielectric pastes and the prepared layer parameters are discussed. Then the firing process is presented, including the firing furnace and its temperature profile, with the drying, firing and annealing phases.