Advanced Packaging: Preparation is Now

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

A new IPC white paper, “Advanced Packaging to Board Level Integration—Needs and Challenges,” authored by Devan Iyer, chief strategist of advanced packaging, and Matt Kelly, chief technology officer, shares expertise on and advocacy for advanced packaging. In this conversation, they share details from the paper about the complexities of advanced packaging technology and provide additional insight into how next-generation packaging will change how printed circuit boards will be designed, fabricated, and assembled, including final system assembly implications.

Nolan Johnson: Your white paper on advanced packaging is a very technically deep, insightful piece with great detail. What's the ultimate goal?

Matt Kelly: Our intent was to go one layer deeper into our silicon-to-systems messaging. You've heard this phrase as a way to describe what's happening at the front end of the supply chain, from chips to the final system. The report begins by talking about applications. It's important to understand that advanced packaging is very broad, so we break down what it means to drive market segments.

For example, advanced packaging means different things in different applications, such as high-performance computing (HPC), 5G/6G wireless communications, autonomous driving and EV automotive, medical electronics, and aerospace and defense systems. Depending on the type of environment and product you're dealing with, the challenges, needs, and requirements for what these advanced packaging techniques can deliver will vary.

This report is important because it combines two concepts—component-level packaging (CLP) and system-level packaging (SLP)—which are obviously related.

It’s important to convey that the amount of time, effort, and investment IPC has made to stay on top of changes with advanced packaging will be ongoing and is here to stay. A long time ago, someone taught me that “everything follows silicon”; just watch what it does, and everything else will follow. That lesson holds true here, too. People are already doing a lot of this work. Products and devices are using this technology as we speak. This is not “someday”; it's actually happening now. But as with everything else, there's breadth to this for the entities unaware of these challenges. We know it’s important for our membership and the industry that we stay on top of this.

To read the continue reading this article, which originally appeared in the November 2024 SMT007 Magazine, click here.