Issue

For the most part, the good news still has not arrived in the packaging and test sub-contractor world.

I was up late the other night and flipped to the classic movie channel as the movie "Field of Dreams" was playing. I hadn't seen it in a few years and decided to watch it again. In the movie, a voice keeps hounding Kevin Costner to take the ultimate risk of plowing his crop of fully mature corn under to build a baseball field.

Now that SEMICON West is upon us the idea of back-end and front-end points out the separation of each step of electronics packaging. Each step in the process sometimes becomes so removed from the mainstream that engineers may lose sight of how an understanding of the whole benefits each step.

With the recent growth of optoelectronics assembly, the use of ribbon wire for interconnects has become more widely used. This article explores the basics of the ribbon bonding machine configuration and some of the finer points of ribbon wedge tools and wire.

Wafer-level packaging has grown in popularity in recent years because manufacturers can now maintain the cost of the IC packaging as a constant percentage of the total wafer cost.

The need for faster devices and smaller form factor has resulted in a prolific adoption of advanced packaging techniques. As semiconductor devices continue to migrate to smaller features, higher frequencies, higher power densities and lower voltages, the industry requires an aggressive packaging technology roadmap.

Liquid dispensers have long played an essential role in printed circuit board (PCB) assembly.

Due to its excellent thermal and electrical performance, the flip chip ball grid array (FCBGA) package has become more and more popular in the semiconductor packaging industry for high pin count integrated circuit devices.

Polymeric mold compounds absorb moisture and, thus, swell when exposed to a humid environment.

The proliferation of new packaging families and variations today is more rapid than ever before.