November- December 1998
eMail the Editor
Despite Slowdown, Investment Continues for HDI Equipment
-By Gene Weiner
-Contributing Editor
Early September showed a flurry of activity in the bare board fabrication industry. Christmas orders for new mobile communications gear and thousand dollar (and less) computers were placed.Inventories had been pared during the spring and summer slowdowns and order declines, following the sinking level of chip orders and high-end PCs.
Yet, this industry segment, responsible for providing the infrastructure for chipscale packaging (CSP), continued to invest in equipment for high density interconnect (HDI) structure fabrication, even as it pared or delayed orders for "conventional" equipment. It wants to be there when the forecasted 1.9 billion CSP demand arrives in the year 2000.
Meetings, symposia and workshops on HDIs are sprouting everywhere, from Singapore and Taipei to Phoenix and Wiesbaden. They are even appearing in rapid succession at the same locale, e.g., November and December in Arizona, where some are sponsored by trade associations, others by private ventures attempting to capitalize on a "hot item."
There is a need for standards for CSP designers. But the proliferation of processes, build-up materials, specialty chemicals and the techniques of forming microvias are changing rapidly.
Lasers
Microvia production in the U.S. is expected to increase tenfold by the year 2,000. Lasering techniques and equipment are changing and improving rapidly. Taiwanese firms are expected to buy 20-30 lasers during the next six to twelve months. Niches are being developed and service companies are forming.
One packaging foundry, Hyundai 's ChipPAC, has announced that it will halve the price of its µBGA® package costs over the next year from 2-3 cents to 1-1.5 cents per I/O. The company is now in full production ramp at its Ichon, Korea, facility.
Sharp Microelectronics has introduced new 16- and 32-Mbit high performance smart voltage flash devices using chip-scale packaging that operate on 3V or 5V power.
Plasma via formation in flexible (and other) substrates for interposers, base platforms and layers are making a comeback. The XMM Satellite to be launched in 1999 will contain an 8-layer adhesiveless polyimide circuit with Dyconex plasma-drilled microvias for its extraordinary packaging.
I attended the IPC's Interconnection Technology Research Institute for HDI research and development at SMI in San Jose in August; I participated in the IPC Symposium at GlobalTRONICS in Singapore in October, and I will join the IPC's November HDI conference in Arizona. The Colorado IMAPS CMC meeting this Spring provided a good look at some Japanese build-up circuit processing for use in CSPs packaging.
Consolidation
Global consolidation and acquisition is still the rage—some through necessity, others for survival and a few even to fulfill a new vision.
Allied Signal acquired semiconductor packaging design company InterChip Systems to strengthen its electronic materials offerings. Dii's newly announced China acquisition, which has been renamed Multek China, has 20-layer MLB capabilities and is already producing BGAs.
Process development, outside of Japan and Taiwan, is now clearly in the purview of the industry's supplier base and a few large fabricators with links to major IC companies. Taiwan's IC companies, in concert with the printed circuits industry, are making large expenditures in the packaging infrastructure. In the U.S., there has woefully been a lack of broadbased industry support of the IPC- related ITRI. But there are some bright spots in the development arena!
California's OLEC has developed a reel-to-reel exposure system that is well suited for the fabrication of BGA flexible interposers for CSPs.
Advanced Micro Devices' Thailand plant has discovered the benefits of using a differential vacuum pressure laminator in making CSPs with flexible interposers and has ordered one from the states.
In spite of Japan's economic woes, and the decline of the DRAM business there, the plastic packaging business has continued its rapid growth this past year. Ibiden's sales in this area rose 50% to about $240 million, and Shinko Electric's sales jumped 48% pushing the company close to the billion dollar mark, thanks in large part to plastic IC packaging sales to Intel.
Stay tuned.
Mr. Weiner is Editor/Publisher of PAC/Asia Circuit News and a consultant to high technology companies. Contact him at 203.797.9103 or fax 203.797.9565.www.weiner-intl.com