This report describes the quality assessment of Blind Via Holes (BVHs) of Printed Wiring Boards (PWBs) drilled by a CO2 laser using Cu-direct drilling. In the Cu-direct drilling method, the copper foil and the build-up layer are melted at the same time, and the surface is treated to increase the laser energy absorbed by the copper foil since an untreated copper surface reflects most of the 10.6-μm-wavelength CO2 laser beam. However, there are few reports dealing with Cu-direct laser drilling of PWBs. In addition, when copper and resin with different processing thresholds are drilled at the same time, occurrences of a defect called overhang have been observed. So, in this report, first we propose a new method using thermography to measure the absorptance of a PWB surface for a CO2 laser. Moreover, we investigate how surface treatment of the outer copper foil influences the quality of a laser-drilled hole. Then, we observe the circumference of a point irradiated with the CO2 laser and explain how melting processes are different from surface treatment. Finally, based on the research we establish a method in order to cut down the overhang length as a parameter of drilled-hole quality. We also show that a high absorptance improves BVH quality.
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