-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- pcb007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueThe Growing Industry
In this issue of PCB007 Magazine, we talk with leading economic experts, advocacy specialists in Washington, D.C., and PCB company leadership to get a well-rounded picture of what’s happening in the industry today. Don’t miss it.
The Sustainability Issue
Sustainability is one of the most widely used terms in business today, especially for electronics and manufacturing but what does it mean to you? We explore the environmental, business, and economic impacts.
The Fabricator’s Guide to IPC APEX EXPO
This issue previews many of the important events taking place at this year's show and highlights some changes and opportunities. So, buckle up. We are counting down to IPC APEX EXPO 2024.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - pcb007 Magazine
Stacked Packages Moving Into Spotlight
August 30, 2013 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
Semiconductor packaging constantly changes, impacting the printed board industry. A couple interesting directions popped up recently when I talked with ams AG, an analog semiconductor house based in Austria.
Heinz Oyrer, the senior marketing manager for automotive at ams, casually mentioned a couple of changes occurring in the high-reliability components sold to automakers. The company makes magnetic sensors, power devices, and wireless components for autos as well as consumer and industrial markets.
Oyrer mentioned that ams is housing high-reliability devices in lead frames. That makes it possible to mount chips without using a circuit board. Oyrer, who didn’t know I write for IPC, jokingly commented that the customers like it, but circuit board suppliers won’t be too happy with that trend.
No doubt he’s right, particularly about automotive companies preferring to eliminate the cost, size, and manufacturing steps of a substrate. Automakers who hope to sell a few million electronic modules over a few years will do a lot to save a penny per module.
Oyrer also described plans to start moving stacked die packages into broad production. A few of its automotive components lend themselves to multichip packaging, again saving cost and size for customers.
It was interesting to get unsolicited confirmation that trends discussed by IPC are on track. Just as interesting is that Oyrer didn’t cite these as meaningful steps for ams. They were mentioned casually as secondary aspects in the company’s ongoing product evolution. They may not be major for ams, but they’re certainly interesting trends for those in the circuit board and packaging fields.