The side benefit to this scenario would be that the semiconductor package and the PCB would be made of materials that would possess the same electrical and physical attributes, making for a very robust union between the two through the assembly process, and on into finished product life.
What Now?
New materials are needed that have no glass reinforcement, very thin copper with high adhesive forces, thin dielectric thicknesses, excellent thickness tolerances, higher Tg, lower Dk and Df, and that can be produced and processed efficiently, with lower cost processes, than what is currently available at these feature pitches. This would allow for far denser, higher speed packages that have better assembly yields that would thrive in harsher environments, than anything currently available.
If materials manufacturers get in the game, we might finally reach the level of PCB miniaturization that allows the IC world to merge with the SMT world.
MICHAEL SHORES is president of Texas Prototypes (TXP) based in Richardson, TX. He can be reached at
