Terrence E. Thompson Senior Editor

SECAP (Semiconductor Equipment Consortium for Advanced Packaging), a dedicated group of WLP equipment advocates, is no more-officially. Its members recently announced the successful completion of SECAP's goals and disbanded in late June.

Personally, I'm sad to see them go, but we'll see their legacy perpetuated in various forums, including the International Wafer-Level Packaging Conference in San Jose this November.

I fondly recall one dark and snowy week in February 2001, when I had the privilege of speaking at a SECAP seminar in Boston at the Omni Parker House. Two things became obvious: Much was needed to boost WLP (batch packaging) awareness and SECAP members had the expertise, planning and enthusiasm to make it happen.

Education Is Essential

The SECAP goal was simple in concept: raise industry awareness of WLP's potential through ongoing educational forums worldwide. They did.

"SECAP addressed challenges-and perceptions-in the development and validation of process equipment for the industry's conversion to WLP and 300mm wafers. It was the mainstream shift to 300mm wafers that really brought packaging's cost of ownership (COO) issues to the forefront. We demonstrated that it was less than $100/300mm wafer," said Paul Siblerud, vice president of electrochemical deposition at Semitool in Kalispell, Mont.

SECAP members were BTU, EKRA, Image Technology, Semitool, SUSS MicroTec, Unaxis and the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) in Berlin. Later, NEXX Systems joined the consortium, along with some materials suppliers.

It's all over but the shouting! Congratulations to SECAP for a job well done!

Demonstrating WLP

SECAP successfully demonstrated 300mm WLP as a functional technology in full-volume production on the first installed wafer-bumping line, a goal since its inception in July 2000. Even in 2000, they already had a functional 150- and 200mm line set up at the legendary Fraunhofer in Germany.

"We thought foundries were the logical early adopters of WLP, but they lacked enough in-house R&D depth," said Siblerud. "SECAP brought the needed knowledge to fill process implementation gaps and WLP was adopted in some foundries. Some initial 300mm capability was demonstrated in October 2001."

Since July 2002, SECAP worked with Amkor/Unitive to develop a 300mm wafer-bumping line to address the technical demands of WLP.

The line is equipped for electroplated solder bumping and is set up at Unitive Semiconductor Taiwan (UST) in Hsinchu. After line qualification, which began in May 2003, the line was open for a short period of time for interested parties to view and to verify its capabilities.

High-Volume Production

Amkor acquired the line at the end of 2004, and it is now in high-volume production. With this line, SECAP has accomplished its goal of demonstrating a cost-effective equipment solution for 300mm electroplated solder bumping.

For the past five years, SECAP has been a steady source of information on wafer bumping and wafer-level packaging technologies by hosting numerous seminars throughout the world with members participating in other conferences.

"We were not surprised when the large chipmakers began using WLP for high I/O chips initially; but we are surprised to see many smaller fabs now producing low I/O WLPs," added Siblerud.

Online SECAP Remains Active

All resources gathered throughout SECAP's activities are archived on the SECAP website that will remain active. [secap.org]

"The achievements by the members of SECAP have been a notable success in advancing 300mm wafer-level packaging into mainstream production," said Siblerud. Semitool has hosted the annaul SECAP-endorsed "Peaks in Packaging" conferences in Kalispell.

At the very least, SECAP initiated some great working relationships that will continue in the future.

Packages Sell Silicon!

No great surprise here, but Charles Lassen, Prismark Partners' managing partner, in February 2000, declared, "The purpose of packaging is to sell silicon.

"In a maturing industry with an extended range of packages, heroic packaging engineers deliver the optimum blend of package cost, package and board reliability, transport and handling, package testability, package parasitics, and package interconnection for each and every application."

Lassen did not mention WLP, as I recall, but his plea for more cost-effective packaging certainly was answered by WLP and SECAP.

WLP Solidly Established Now

WLP, with intense efforts by SECAP, is now well-established in the IC packaging industry.

WLP will not work for every chip, or chipset, but it will certainly bring costs down for a growing number of ICs, MEMS and photonic devices.

SECAP, thanks for a job well done!