Lack of Infrastructure Delaying Smart Card Acceptance in the U.S.

Future industry change will continue to be fast and furious.

At the 15th annual In-Stat Forum, Dr. Tsugio Makimoto, a member of the board of directors and corporate chief technologist for Hitachi Ltd., stated that we are embarking on the age of the "Digital Nomad" that demands connectivity from anywhere, at anytime.

Innovations, such as the Intel Web Pad, about the size of an "Etch-A-Sketch," will certainly add to the feeding frenzy, which will require more CSPs.

Smart Cards

The use of Smart Cards is growing in Europe and Asia much faster than in the U.S. Currently only 3% of the 2.5 billion cards used worldwide include a packaged chip.

Part of the problem is the lack of a second infrastructure, i.e., card readers that can decode an embedded chip. Just what does it take to get companies to commit to bringing the promise to fruition?

Maybe it's a matter of focus, but I seem to find more activity in Asia than in the U.S. among companies seeking solutions and providing capacity for new packages.

Chipsets

There are two fabricators in Taiwan, Compeq Manufacturing and Boardtek Electronics, that can make the PC boards for Intel's next-generation chipsets to support Direct Rambus DRAMs (de-signed by Rambus Inc.)

The chipsets are expected to be introduced in the third quarter. Japan's Ibiden is also probably approved to manufacture these parts.

Nippon Steel Chemical has set up an operation at its electronic materials center where engineers and customer representatives can work together on the development of new flip-chip packages, including mounting and bonding as well as evaluation.

Strategic Initiatives

NEC Electronics has initiated several strategic initiatives designed to accelerate the company's goal of attaining leadership in system-on-chip (SOC) solutions for the communications, consumer, PC and peripherals markets. These will lead to further demand for CSPs.

The Victor Co. of Japan (JVC) has developed a halogen-free, build-up-type-multilayer printed wiring board. Mass production will begin by summer and will comprise one-fourth to one-fourth of all PWB production by October. Current products will gradually be converted to the halogen-free category in response to the needs of the manufacturers of PCs, portable phones and digital video cameras which employ array-type packages.

Microvias: Now or Never?

The May 3 issue of Electronic News seems to have hit the nail on the head with the packaging item titled, "Microvias: Now or Never for North America's PCB Industry?"

It seems to be a chicken or egg situation. American firms are reluctant to make capital investments or support R&D for processes that will provide the production capability when the orders arrive. Asians, on the other hand, have invested ahead of the demand curve.

More than 80% of the microvia substrate output resides in Japan. That country's laser drill makers are reported to be producing 30 systems a month. Where are they going? Certainly not to the U.S. Taiwan is rapidly building capability, too.

It is not as though the technology and equipment were absent from the U.S. Lasers for "drilling" microvias are offered by Electro Scientific Industries, Excellon Automation and GSI Lumonics (the merger of General Scanning and Lumonics).

Permanent photo-imageable dielec-trics are available from DuPont, Enthone-OMI, Morton Electronic Materials and others. Resin-coated foil is available from several suppliers, including Allied Signal.

There are even new packaging substrate innovations being introduced in the U.S. W.L. Gore just announced a new substrate material for flip-chip packaging. Designated MICROLAM™, the new material has a specific CTE that matches copper-clad PC boards. So far, the material is used only by Gore and its licensees for package manufacture.

There continues to be improvement in the availability of more precise solder balls of various compositions for BGA package assembly.

Indium Corp. of America has announced a new line with standard sizes of 300 µm to 1270 µm. Special sizes, down to just 100 µm in diameter, are available.

Mr. Weiner is editor and publisher of PAC/Asia Circuit News and is also a consultant to high technology companies. Contact him at gene@weiner-intl.com.