Marcy’s Musings: Operating Without a Rulebook
It’s Only Common Sense: Hire for Hunger, Train for Skill
Dan’s Biz Bookshelf: ‘The 'NVIDIA Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant’
The Impact of Chip Packaging
February 1, 2023 | Charles E. Bauer, Ph.D., TechLead CorporationEstimated reading time: 1 minute
When talking about chip packaging impacts on substrates and electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers, the focus mostly lies on large packages and very high I/O, fine pitch components; rightly so in most cases. However, several current packaging trends offer a new path forward to simplification and, thereby, cost reduction in both the printed wiring board (PWB) and EMS supply chains.
A handful of key technologies support these advances. Through silicon vias (TSV), while tracing their origins back to the invention of the transistor and found in a few supercomputers during the 1980s, really came onto the volume manufacturing scene between 2005 and 2010. Since that time, rapid advances in process control and yield led to very high-density memory implementations. TSV now proves a key enabler in the evolution of chiplet architectures.
The second key technology development came in the form of silicon and glass substrate development. Silicon substrates entered the scene in a significant manner during the 1990s but, until recently, proved too expensive for all but the most esoteric applications. The availability of old node fabrication equipment that flooded the market around 2008–10, opened the door to more reasonably priced Si substrate and provided an easy path to the current chiplet architecture, particularly for large IC OEMs. The advent of glass substrates, driven by extensive research at the Georgia Tech Packaging Research Center, now provides very high routing capability comparable with silicon substrates at far lower cost. The compatibility between the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of glass and Si chips makes for highly reliable, multichip assembly either in a chiplet or SiP application.
To read this entire article, which appeared in the January 2023 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.
Share on:
Testimonial
"Your magazines are a great platform for people to exchange knowledge. Thank you for the work that you do."
Simon Khesin - Schmoll MaschinenSuggested Items
Global Sourcing Spotlight: The True Cost of Low Cost
03/25/2026 | Bob Duke -- Column: Global Sourcing SpotlightThere’s an illusion in global sourcing that cheaper means better business. For decades, procurement teams received rewards for driving down unit prices, without realizing how many zeros those “savings” add to the other side of the ledger. With today’s volatile, interconnected supply chains, the lowest price is rarely the lowest cost.
From PEDC to APEX: Banyan.eco’s Disruptive AI for EMS and OEM Companies
03/17/2026 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007The electronics industry’s struggle with supply chain resilience and increasing regulatory complexity has created a costly compliance challenge for OEMs and EMS providers alike. At the same time, advances in artificial intelligence are opening new possibilities for automating some of the industry’s most data-intensive tasks. At the Pan-European Design Conference (PEDC), Banyan.eco cofounder Francis D’Souza introduced a new approach that combines AI-driven data acquisition with a deterministic verification layer to eliminate compliance risk from AI hallucination and dramatically improve productivity.
Fresh PCB Concepts: Cost Stability in a Period of Copper and Gold Volatility
02/12/2026 | Team NCAB -- Column: Fresh PCB ConceptsAnyone who works with PCBs in any capacity right now can feel that copper and laminate prices are not stagnant, gold price is increasing even faster, and the impact shows up quickly on PCB quotations. For many design teams, this feels like a force outside their control. Raw materials go up, and the board cost goes with it. I want to highlight that many of these swings are manageable.
Global Sourcing Spotlight: The New Landscape of Manufacturing
02/11/2026 | Bob Duke -- Column: Global Sourcing SpotlightFor decades, manufacturing followed a familiar pattern: design in the West, production in China, and distribution elsewhere. That map no longer works. The shocks of the past five years—the pandemic shutdowns, trade wars, logistics meltdowns, and geopolitical uncertainty—have redrawn the boundaries of global manufacturing. The question every OEM is asking isn’t “How cheap can we make it”? but “How certain are we that we can obtain it?” We are witnessing a seismic shift in the landscape of making things. The work hasn’t disappeared; it’s just moving.
Learning with Leo: The Cost of Training on Skills and Knowledge Development
01/07/2026 | Leo Lambert -- Column: Learning With LeoThe ability to manufacture electronic products requires specific skills and knowledge, which have traditionally been developed through on-the-job experience and training. These experiences and training programs are expensive to implement, yet they are necessary to meet customer demands and remain competitive in the marketplace. Today, manufacturers, including government contractors, rely on industrial specifications in the design, fabrication, and assembly of electronic products.