A microvia is the smallest via available in PCB assembly. ICP standards define a microvia as a hole with an aspect ratio of 1:1, with a hole diameter of 150 microns or less, and usually only connects one layer of a board to an adjacent layer. As health care PCB factory know that, Microvias can be formed by photolithography, photodefining dielectrics, reactive ion etching, and laser ablation.

The rise of handheld electronic devices has sparked technological innovation in this field. Microvias are popular because they can provide for increased density on a smaller substrate, allowing for more portability in devices ranging from laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, and more. The need for smaller technology has also changed the way that they are layered on top of one another – while microvias tend to only connect adjacent layers, they can be arranged in a manner such that they allow for information to pass through multiple layers of a circuit board. Health care PCB factory referred to as stacked and staggered microvias.

Stacked Microvias – Stacked microvias are when a series of microvias is placed on top of each other in a straight chain.

Staggered Microvias – Rather than being aligned in a straight line, staggered microvias are arranged in a cascade moving down several layers. If a stacked microvias looks like an elevator shaft, staggered microvias resemble something closer to a stairwell.

Both of these methods are efficient methods of building vias between multiple layers. However, stacked microvias tend to be more expensive and time consuming to manufacture, as the stacked vias need to be filled and planarized.