Business Focus Most domestic semiconductor companies have shifted their business focus to designing the best ICs and systems and have left the assembly responsibility to the growing packaging field of packaging foundries. Given the expense and expanse of packaging portfolios, services and finite functional life of support capital, this is a trend unlikely to abate, ever. All too often, the technological issues are addressed first, before the business issues. And for good reason, since new IC packaging concepts, materials and processes are being developed and introduced virtually every week. Let's take a quick look at some issues to address in the selection process:
Other technical considerations will be discussed later. Strategy Needed Choosing a packaging foundry requires a strategy for any size company requiring packaging services. Selecting or wanting to be aligned with the largest assembler is not a strategy, and setting this as a goal can have repercussions. It is essential for any company to have a well-thought-out plan that dovetails its packaging requirements with its semiconductor design and business thrusts. A chip maker can suffer severely by scaling its packaging requirements to the capacity levels of a packaging foundry. And yet, this, along with similar actions, takes place often! A large-scale semiconductor company - one that is a leader in the design and manufacture of ICs that support content streaming for the Internet - may well find better support from an assembler who supports general technology for success rather than one who focuses on high volumes. Assembler Support That means a packaging foundry driven by volume run-rates will not have the same focus as one that operates with a balance of volume and technology advantage. For example, a budding North American company specializing exclusively in DSL ASIC products housed in a PBGA may discover its best support will come from a lower-tiered assembler.
Why? Because the nature of that start-up's business encompasses these issues:
The snapshot profile of this company would be well suited with a packaging foundry that:
The opening company scenario of this article isn't a fictitious situation. It is a microcapsulized example of how a packaging engineer can find him/herself in a challenging position trying to match high-speed operational characteristics of an IC with the right level of package. Frequent Misunderstandings One point of frequent misunderstanding is that the largest assembler is the best assembler. The start-up, let alone an established semiconductor company, will find a situation common in any business arena, most appropriately described as a "small-fish-in-a-big-pond" phenomenon. The lure to the semiconductor designer/ fab/manufacturer is being aligned with the largest, most widely known provider in the industry, expecting (hoping) that they will receive the same attention as the "big-boys." As much as one might believe this is true, if the IC packager is given a choice or painted into a corner on who to support, it'll be the larger revenue generating customer(s). This becomes most obvious when capacities are constrained, and the assembler must place customers on allocation. Matching your company's requirements to the service ability of the IC assembler can't be minimized! Some of the issues that will come into the decision process in selecting an assembler will cover, to some degree, multiple aspects of the following:
Projected Growth Matching the requirements of your current needs to projected growth is the key to a successful partnership. If having a technically advanced leader for a packaging partner is the objective, the choices are relatively clear. If your requirement is for the assembler to have a European presence, the choices are very limited. If the IC product you designed must have the support for 75 micron wire bonds migrating to 40 micron flip-chip, then starting with an assembler who offers flip-chip capability now is sounder than qualifying another source in a year or two. If you need leaded packages, in addition to array types, and your future needs are for advanced interconnect systems, opt for a company that offers a broad product portfolio. The ability to leverage prices, service features, benefits and preference at an elevated level is significant.
Conclusion As patronizing as it may sound, understanding and acknowledging the business your company is in will make it much easier to select an assembler that provides the appropriate support. Knowing what your company's needs are for technical or market advantage, benefits, features, technology roadmap for users, designers, systems engineers and specifiers is important to incorporate in the selection process. Equally important is sharing and circulating that information with your shortlist of potential assembly partners. The recipe for a successful partnership is the level of trust and commitment that is attained between the partnership, customer and supplier. In turn, the supplier should advise its customer-partner of the supply chain issues that will affect the partnership. The Answer? To construct a "truth-table" with the many possible combinations would be easy enough, but it wouldn't be very useful. Picking a fab partner is actually a challenge that seems clearer and easier than selecting a packaging supplier. So what's the solution? There is no one single set of answers nor an algorithm to make this effortless. The challenge is to find one who will support your growth. The starting point is from the onset of any program where IC packaging is or will be required. This speaks clearly to using a parallel business and technological approach for the selection process. Selecting the "right" assembler may be challenging, but it's not a difficult task. Does it require a great deal of thought? Does it demand extensive evaluation of your potential partner? Does it require a complete understanding and acceptance of your packaging goals? Yes to all those. Good hunting!
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