-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueMechatronics
Our expert contributors discuss the advent of mechatronics in PCB design, the challenges and opportunities this creates for circuit board designers, and the benefits—to the employee and the company—of becoming a mechatronics engineer.
Creating a Culture of Collaboration
PCB designers could learn quite a bit from NASA and the private companies that develop spacecraft: Every one of these vehicles is a testament to the value of collaboration among disparate stakeholders. Without a collaborative culture, the rocket might never get off the ground.
Breaking High-speed Material Constraints
Do you need specialty materials for your high-speed designs? Maybe not. Improvements in resins mean designers of high-speed boards can sometimes use traditional laminate systems. Learn more in this issue.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Chuck Bauer Discusses the Future of Packaging
September 5, 2018 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
When we decided to cover the future of PCB packaging, we knew we would have to interview Charles Bauer, Ph.D., owner of TechLead Corporation. For over 35 years, Chuck has been a pioneer in electronics packaging, from 3D and system-in-package to multichip modules and nano technology. He’s a frequent speaker at events like SMTA International, ICEP Japan and ESTC in Europe. He also founded the Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium.
Chuck recently spoke with Happy Holden, Andy Shaughnessy and Barry Matties about current trends in packaging, the need for product designers and manufacturers to communicate, and why no matter how cool the technology is, cost is still king.
Happy Holden: Chuck, some of the big trends are 3D packaging and wafer-level packaging. Wafer-level packaging is of interest to a lot of our readers because the organic package substrate is a leading edge for circuit board technology. With this wafer-level packaging push, it wants to be finer and finer pitch. What does that do to the assembly, Chuck?
Bauer: First, I think that wafer-level packaging is really a misnomer because wafer-level packaging isn't really being done so much at the wafer level anymore. There's fan-in, wafer-level packaging, which is indeed a wafer-level packaging approach. That's relatively limited today, and I think that some of the barriers in terms of interfacing with circuit boards are going to inhibit that technology. It doesn't mean it can't be done or won’t be done; it just means it's going to be inhibited in terms of pin-count because their pitch is going to be constrained by the next level of interconnection.
There are countervailing trends in the assembly side of the industry, where we're seeing a lot more activity going on in the area of nano assembly. For example, about four years ago we did a project that had a wafer-to-wafer connection. We used a nano silver technology to join a CMOS pre-amplifier chip directly to an indium phosphide avalanche photo diode. We were connecting those two chips to each other, and we were doing it on a 32-micron pitch with 6-micron pillars. Today, they're down to about 22-micron pitch, and the goal is to get it to 15-micron pitch.
IBM Zurich has been very active in using nano copper as the bonding medium to assemble fine-pitch packages down to about 40-micron pitch onto printed circuit boards. I think that there will necessarily be materials development that will allow us to achieve those finer pitches. How fine a pitch we have to go to is a different question. As we go to too fine a pitch, what happens to the printed circuit board? I do think that, especially in the kinds of products that are going to use these super fine pitch devices, you're starting to see a trend toward more and more flex and flex rigid type structures.
The one area where those packages are going to be a big player is in areas such as IoT. No other markets are big enough to justify processing of devices at a panel level like that, because most of the technologies that we use, and most of the designs that we use, just don't use enough volume to justify putting together a panel processing line, when you look at the capacity.
To read this entire interview, which appeared in the August 2018 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
Trouble in Your Tank: Materials for PWB Fabrication—Drillability and Metallization
07/16/2024 | Michael Carano -- Column: Trouble in Your TankLaminate materials are the building blocks on which printed circuit boards are manufactured. Circuit board designers rely on the critical electrical properties of the materials to design the interconnects, and with the drive toward IoT (internet of things), autonomous driving, and virtual and augmented reality, material properties take on a very high level of importance.
Beyond Prepreg: The Glassless ‘Revolution’
06/25/2024 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineAs our industry rallies around the call to action for HDI and UHDI, we find unparalleled and myriad laminate options. This abundance is rivaled only by the question surrounding them: Can they measure up to the high technology packaging demands required in our near future? Unsurprisingly, recent developments in FR-4-esque materials for high-speed and high-density designs, as well as newer, glassless technology for replacing traditional glass-impregnated laminates and prepreg, are garnering much interest. I caught up with Alun Morgan, technology ambassador for Ventec International Group, to ask about the impending “glassless revolution” and how it’s poised to solve some of our manufacturing challenges.
Connect the Dots: Designing for Reality—Lamination and Materials
06/19/2024 | Matt Stevenson -- Column: Connect the DotsAs many of you have likely figured out, I am quite passionate about the subject of designing PCBs for the reality of manufacturing. I wrote a book about it and I participate in an I-Connect007 On the Line with… podcast series dedicated to the subject. This companion article will focus on multilayer lamination, keeping the bigger picture in mind: Realistic PCB designs should prioritize manufacturability and reliability of the PCB as well as meet the other design requirements. So, one must account for the production variables associated with individual manufacturing partners.
Day 2: A Full Day at the EIPC Summer Conference
06/19/2024 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007Editor's note: This is the third and final report from the EIPC Summer Conference. It was a bright and early start to the second day of the 2024 EIPC Summer Conference at the European Space Centre, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, June 4-5. A short journey by bus from the hotel in Leiden and our security passes from the day before got us through the gate and to our seats in the Newton Room for Session 4, “Material Studies,” moderated by Martyn Gaudion.
Looking Into Space: EIPC Summer Conference, Part 2
06/17/2024 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007“Innovative Development of PCB Technology and Design” was the theme of the second session of the 2024 EIPC Summer Conference, June 4-5, at the European Space Centre, Noordwijk, The Netherlands.