SBIR-STTR Award

MCMs represent a major improvement in advanced electronic packaging. Pico Systems serves the MCM market with a programmable substrate technology which avoids the need for a customized MCM substrate. This is attractive for prototyping and low volumes since it minimizes non-recurring costs and lead times. Key components are a combination of software and equipment used to customize substrates to specific circuit designs. This collection of equipment and software is known as the programming station and currently occupies two full laboratory benches.With research funds from a Phase I award, Pico Systems would develop a feasibility model for a Field Programming Station of FPS--a system that would allow full quick- turn of custom MCMs at a customer site. Placing this MCM substrate customization in the field would allow designers to create new prototype MCMs in less than a week. Phase I efforts would include various proof of principal experiments, as well as investigations into programmable substrate architecture advances that will complement the new programming method.Pico's current substrate programming system for production MCMs cannot be distributed due to cost, maintenance and ease of use issues.Pico Systems has received substantial interest from customers with a desire to design and program their own MCM substrates. (As evidenced by the offer of partial funding of this project by NASA Goddard and the Army Research Laboratories. See Appendix C - Cost Summary.) The availability of the FPS will provide users the capability to achieve the ultra-rapid prototyping capability while maintaining the secrecy of any classifed or proprietary information involved in product design.

Multichip modules (MCMs) represent a key advance in electronic packaging. Pico Systems serves the MCM market with a programmable substrate technology which avoids the need for a customized MCM substrate. This is attractive for prototyping and low volume production since it minimizes non-recurring costs and lead times. Key components are a combination of software and equipment used to customize substrates to specific circuit designs. The collection of equipment & software is known as the Programming Station and currently occupies two full laboratory benches. Pico's current programming system for production MCMs cannot be distributed due to cost, maintenance, and ease-of-use issues.With development funds from a Phase II award, Pico Systems proposes to develop a Field Programming Station--a system that would allow full quick-turn of custom MCMs at a customer site. Placing this MCM substrate customization in the field would allow designers to create prototype MCMs in just a few days. This is versus Pico's typical turn around time of a few weeks or versus the industry average of 2-3 months. Likely the greatest time savings lies in the elimination of procurement paperwork since developing a prototype MCM with the FPS would be entirely an internal project.The culmination of Pico's Phase II effort would be the creation of two prototype "FPS" units, one kept at Pico and one shipped to the Air Force Phillips Laboratory. Both Pico and PLK would create a few copies of the same simple circuit design to demonstrate the utility of the new FPS system in the field.Pico Systems has received substantial interest from customers with a desire to design and program their own MCM substrates. This is evidenced by the offer of supplemental funding from NASA, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, and the National Security Agency (see appendix G).The FPS will provide users with the capability to achieve the ultra-rapid prototyping capability while maintaining the secrecy of any classified or proprietary information involved in the product design