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Pillared Approach to Lead-free Wafer Bumping
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
SINGAPORE — Working with lead-free solder has created challenges for many contract assemblers. Singapore-based Advanpack Solutions Pte Ltd. (APS), a flip chip assembly service and technology-licensing provider, takes a pillar approach.
The APS approach uses a rigid, non-reflowable bump to support the reflowable lead-free solder wetting tip. Special manufacturing methods restrict solder wetting on the sides of the copper pillar, thereby maintaining a constant spacing of the reflowable portion of the bumps from each other.
APS began the lead-free technology push early in 2002 to meet the legislative restrictions imposed by the European Commission that require lead-free electronics packaging by January 1, 2006. In addition to the lead-free initiative at APS, a concerted effort was put forth to provide a lead-free solution with a bump pitch below 100 µm. The main goal of the fine-pitch pumping was to achieve below 100 µm pitch bumping while maintaining an overall bump height of 85 µm. The figure shows a close-up view of lead-free, fine-pitch pillar bumps of 85 µm.
APS operates two factories in Singapore: one fab site for wafer bumping wafers in flip chip operations and the other for flip chip assembly. Most of APS' flip chip advanced packaging solutions are used in fast-growing communication applications such as data networking, broadband and mobile communications, and RF devices.
MEMS: The Technology to Watch
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — When conducting a recent study on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), Peripheral Research Corp. President Dennis Waid was surprised by the many applications for the emerging technology.
"They're all over the scale," Waid explained. "If you go back to the semiconductor or storage industries, for example, they are pretty focused applications."
At the same time, companies such as Analog Devices, Nova Sensors and Motorola, along with approximately 100 foundries worldwide, are investing R&D dollars in the technology, but in specific areas. "They are very focused, with not a lot of crossover," Waid explained. "The question is, can we take advantage of the total potential volume in coming up with technology that gets the individual cost for all these applications down to reasonable levels?"
One of the larger markets for MEMS in the next three to four years, according to Waid, is automotive. With future automotive technologies such as brake-by-wire, steering-by-wire and acceleration-by-wire, as well as the tire pressure monitors mandated by Congress to be implemented by 2005 using MEMS technologies for both positioning and sensing operations, the MEMS study predicts that the market will grow from 100 million units in 2001 to 430 million units in 2005.
Biomedical applications also offer promise. "The growth in the technology to help humanity from the DNA standpoint is phenomenal," Waid explained.
Another challenge to widespread MEMS use is packaging the devices. "MEMS have a lot of semiconductor-like qualities, but they have moving parts," Waid said. "So you have to seal off the electronic parts from the moving parts. You can't expose any of the transistors to any sort of ambient air conditions."
Overall, MEMS is an important technology to watch, Waid said. "It should be interesting to see where it goes, and how participating technologies as well as some of the foundries dial themselves into it early enough to capitalize on the growth."