Issue

Nearly a year after the presentation of “A Case for Socket Reuse,” by Paul Gaschke of IBM, at the 2006 Burn-in and Test Socket (BiTS) Workshop, I wondered whether compression-mount sockets (which enabled the socket reuse he described) were seeing more widespread acceptance and application by users, and being added to suppliers’ product portfolios.

In the electronics industry, the road to success is no longer paved only with state-of-the-art equipment, technologies, or materials.

Advanced Packaging talked with IMEC’s Ann Witvrouw about recent developments in MEMS and CMOS processing, and how the technology could lead to advanced packaging techniques across the spectrum of MEMS structures.

In the electronics industry, the road to success is no longer paved only with state-of-the-art equipment, technologies, or materials.

If you had told me seven years ago that the industry would consider spending around $30 million for lithography tools (immersion 193 nm), I would have laughed out loud.

Novel wafer-level 3D technologies will enable cell phone and other mobile equipment designers to achieve greater circuit density and/or significant cost savings, versus designs that make use of chips in traditional leadframe packages.

We had a great turnout for our visit to Vectron International, in Hudson, NH.

The snow in New England was turning gray. Even skiing had lost its appeal.

The die-attach layer has two main functions: mechanical fixation of the die on its substrate, and dissipation of heat generated in the die. Especially in power and high-power applications, generated heat density is high.

Conductive paste screening on green sheet through a mask is a common technique to delineate desired circuitry for ceramic modules.

Two common processes used to attach die to the pad or cavity of the package’s support structure are adhesive and eutectic die attach.

While research in nano-transistors and nanotube wiring has been widely publicized, few seem to realize that a less glamorous application of nanotechnology in microelectronics device packaging appears closer to commercial reality.