Packaging

Packaging is a very important but broad area. Apart from the odd naked die in some exotic application, 99% of the IC's is sold packaged. This can roughly be divided into three areas:

plastic over-moulded packages (probably 80% of all products)
wafer-level or chip scale packaging (CSP), especially driven by the mobile phone and portable devices markets
modules or hybrid packages, which is essentially everything non-standard.

For the latter category I refer to the page on RF Modules.

Over the years I have lived through the many diverse and successive families of ever smaller over-moulded IC-packages: from DIL to SSOP to QFN and lead-less. Main drivers: cost and miniaturization. Decisions on these type of platform generations are as complex as CMOS-generation discussions: major investments, long term strategic impact and increasingly make-or-buy or at least 2nd-sourcing discussions.

Next to that there were many different more specialised packages, of which I will only mention a few:

vertical packages for discretes
power packages, with e.g. clips and soft soldering
extremely thin lead-less packages
waver level chip scale and bumping, with or without redistribution layers
thin packages with internal redistribution lead frames
multi-die packages; stacked or adjacent dies
BGA's
RF packages, including RF Power modules and later plastic over-moulded RF Power
Sensor packages with windows for the sensor
Au to Cu wire conversion

PCB and substrate technology

Over the years, and especially related to modules or advanced packages, Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) has been a recurring technology.

in tuners the PCB was a key element, especially w.r.t. solderability of the wide range of components: from fine pitch SSOP IC's to the all metal tin can
RF modules were made on either Al2O3 ceramic substrates or multi-layer FR4 PCB. Major price-performance analysis for each case.
Never-ending concept discussions about chip-in-PCB (i.e. naked dies embedded and over-moulded inside a PCB instead of a package). Of course never materialised.

Recently with one of my customers Neways Microelectronics a very interesting project on innovation in the ceramic thick film segment, the primary technology for (automotive) power modules. Even in the oldest technologies innovation is still possible!

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