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Electronic News, July 23, 2001 by Bernard Levine

SAN JOSE-As I walked through Semicon West's final manufacturing extravaganza last week, I was struck by the enormous impact semiconductor packaging now has on the industry -- much more so than 25 years ago when I arrived at Electronic News. The need to make ICs and electronic end-products smaller and lighter is the key reason why. Today's handheld wireless consumer marvels would not exist otherwise.

Developments in chip-scale, flip-chip, wafer-level, system-in-a-package and other back-end semiconductor miniaturization ploys were examined in technical forums and exhibits throughout Semicon West. Some are quite far along already, while others need more work. Most will happen, but like the other electronics revolutions I have discussed in my 25th anniversary series, they will take time.

When I arrived at Electronic News in 1976, packaging was an afterthought of semiconductor design. Plenty has changed since then with the "back-end" of IC production now at the forefront of the industry's attention.

OEMs devote major emphasis on packaging know-how today. Packaging foundries have emerged that concentrate just in these disciplines. Many contract manufacturers and design houses also feature advanced packaging as key parts of their arsenal.

"Years ago, you did all your stuff in silicon and didn't worry about the package. You eventually put it in some sort of traditional lead-frame package, but there was not a whole lot of attention given to it. We can't be as flip as we used to be," said Joe Fjelstad of high-end design house Pacific Consultants LLC, Mountain View, Calif.

"Twenty years ago, we were just starting surface mount," he said. "Miniaturization is still the sexy thing today. You must accommodate the consumer's demand for lighter and smaller. Handhelds tend to be drivers."

A lot of my reporting energy at Electronic News over the years has been spent covering surface mounting--the foundation of today's packaging revolution. Downsized surface-mount board assembly of miniaturized active and passive components made today's portable electronics possible.

Twenty-five years ago, most electronics industry board assembly featured bulky leaded through-hole components. I remember the first time a capacitor company executive had this newfangled surface-mount board with tiny chip caps and other incredibly small parts to dangle before me. I was astounded. Yet surface-mount technology took many years after that to get the kinks out, with some issues such as grain-of-pepper size 0201s and integrated passives still being worked on today.

I wrote many articles over the years on the industry's struggles to develop suitable parts, board assembly gear and processes. Many technical glitches, such as parts shifting out of position, had to be solved.