Fan-in WLCSP matures, what's next? IMT on the role ... - I-Micronews

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0 i s s u e n ° 1 4
N e w s l e t t e r o n 3 D I C , T S V , W L P & E m b e d d e d T e c h n o l o g i e s
E D I T O R I A L
giant is now mass produc<strong>in</strong>g the CMOS
BSI sensor <strong>in</strong> its newest video camcorders
and digital still cameras. But Sony is not
an isolated case as <strong>in</strong> early January, many
other announcements have followed and not
only Casio but also Nikon, Ricoh, Samsung,
JVC and Fujifilm all separately announced
their first digital camera products us<strong>in</strong>g a
CMOS sensor… based on BSI “Backside
illum<strong>in</strong>ation” technology!
So, a lot of <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g announcements <strong>in</strong> the
high-end imag<strong>in</strong>g market have happened
early this year. But the low-end image sensor
market will not stand by and watch as we
believe that CMOS BSI technology will also
appear <strong>in</strong>to different smart-phone camera
products later this year. Omnivision is ready
and currently sampl<strong>in</strong>g its second generation
BSI image sensor. Apt<strong>in</strong>a Imag<strong>in</strong>g, Toshiba,
Samsung and STMicro are also <strong>in</strong> the
start<strong>in</strong>g-blocks.
Yole is follow<strong>in</strong>g the CMOS image sensor
market very closely for several years now. We
are very pleased to announce the imm<strong>in</strong>ent
release of our all new market study <strong>in</strong> this
area. This report will of course provide the
key technical <strong>in</strong>sights about the very latest
technology trends such as BSI, Wafer Level
Cameras, image stabilization and auto-focus
technologies that are under development for
the camera module market!
A N A L Y S I S
<strong>Fan</strong>-<strong>in</strong> <strong>WLCSP</strong> <strong>matures</strong>, what’s <strong>next</strong>?
From page 1
QFN packages are the most competitive with
<strong>WLCSP</strong> <strong>in</strong> the market space requir<strong>in</strong>g reduced
form factor, he says. <strong>WLCSP</strong> cost is competitive
with QFN today <strong>in</strong> small die sizes with low I/O
counts and less expensive than QFN as the I/O
count <strong>in</strong>creases. <strong>Fan</strong>-<strong>in</strong> <strong>WLCSP</strong> is expected to
become less expensive than QFN packages <strong>in</strong> all
die sizes as <strong>WLCSP</strong> volume <strong>in</strong>creases.
<strong>Fan</strong>-<strong>in</strong> <strong>WLCSP</strong>s cont<strong>in</strong>ue to have the highest
year-over-year adoption rate of all semiconductor
packages, says Ted Tessier, chief technical
officer of FlipChip International (Phoenix, Ariz.;
www.flipchip.com), thanks to their m<strong>in</strong>imalist form
factor at an attractive price po<strong>in</strong>t. “Most of the
high-volume suppliers of <strong>WLCSP</strong>s are driv<strong>in</strong>g
an aggressive cost-reduction roadmap and, as a
result, the pric<strong>in</strong>g has dropped gradually. But after
10 years of high-volume usage, cont<strong>in</strong>ued price
reduction is becom<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gly difficult and
level<strong>in</strong>g off,” he adds.
lead<strong>in</strong>g semiconductor package because many
applications where space isn’t critical don’t have
strong drivers to migrate to <strong>WLCSP</strong>.
“It’s one of the faster-grow<strong>in</strong>g packages, along with
QFN, but both have a way to go to catch up with the
more established packages, which will cont<strong>in</strong>ue to
grow at a slower pace,” says Stepniak.
Beyne notes that the majority of packages are
still lead-frame-based solutions, but expects the
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of <strong>WLCSP</strong>s
will be much greater.
Expand<strong>in</strong>g to more apps?
Another big question is: Will the success of fan<strong>in</strong>
<strong>WLCSP</strong> <strong>in</strong> mobile applications, first <strong>in</strong>tegrated
for size/m<strong>in</strong>iaturization drivers, allow for its wide
adoption by other consumer applications?
“… QFN packages are the most competitive with <strong>WLCSP</strong> <strong>in</strong> the
market space requir<strong>in</strong>g reduced form factor …”, accord<strong>in</strong>g to Tom
Strothmann, STATS ChipPAC Inc.
Jérôme Baron
Technology & Market Analyst & Editor
baron@yole.fr
E V E N T S
• DATE 2010 - Design, Automation &
Test <strong>in</strong> Europe
March 8-9, Dresden, Germany
• IMAPS 2010 : 6th International
Conference and Exhibition on Device
Packag<strong>in</strong>g,
March 9- 11, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
• Image Sensors Europe,
March 23-25, London, UK
Issue sponsored by:
While fan-<strong>in</strong> is becom<strong>in</strong>g cheaper, so are compet<strong>in</strong>g
semiconductor packages, po<strong>in</strong>ts out David
Stepniak, manager of WCSP and 3D packag<strong>in</strong>g at
Texas Instruments (Dallas, Texas; www.ti.com). He
doesn’t anticipate a change <strong>in</strong> packag<strong>in</strong>g strategy
between fan-<strong>in</strong> <strong>WLCSP</strong> and other packages based
on relative price or cost changes.
And <strong>in</strong> many cases, David Kress, director of
Technical Market<strong>in</strong>g at Analog Devices Inc.
(Norwood, Mass.; www.analog.com), says that
<strong>WLCSP</strong> has already become the least expensive
package.
Lead<strong>in</strong>g package?
Is fan-<strong>in</strong> <strong>WLCSP</strong> emerg<strong>in</strong>g as the overall lead<strong>in</strong>g
semiconductor package? With so many packages
out there to choose from, it’s hardly surpris<strong>in</strong>g that
op<strong>in</strong>ions vary a little.
<strong>Fan</strong>-<strong>in</strong> <strong>WLCSP</strong> has the highest growth rate of
all ma<strong>in</strong>stream semiconductor packages, says
Strothmann, but it’s start<strong>in</strong>g from a smaller base
than other package technologies. He expects it
will become the dom<strong>in</strong>ant package <strong>in</strong> handheld
products where a reduced form factor is critical,
but feels it’s unlikely to become the overall
“The <strong>in</strong>dustry-wide high-volume <strong>in</strong>frastructure that
was put <strong>in</strong>to place for the fabrication, back-end die
process<strong>in</strong>g, and surface mount technology (SMT)
usage of <strong>WLCSP</strong>s to support the ultrahigh-volume
requirements of mobile applications is def<strong>in</strong>itely
provid<strong>in</strong>g a robust base from which the proliferation
of <strong>WLCSP</strong>s is spr<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to other application
spaces,” says Tessier. “We’re see<strong>in</strong>g significant
adoption and eng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> automotive,
medical, comput<strong>in</strong>g, and digital photography.
SEM Photomicrograph of a <strong>Fan</strong>-In <strong>WLCSP</strong>
embedded <strong>in</strong> a PCB lam<strong>in</strong>ate (Courtesy of FlipChip)
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