Electronic Packaging

1
Electronic Packaging

• Electronic packaging is everything needed to turn
  integrated circuits into electronic systems
• Power supplies
• Chip packaging
• Circuit boards
• Passive components (capacitors, resistors,
  inductors)
• Heat removal
• Human interfaces (keyboards, screens)
• 3-D packaging to increase system density

Inside a cell phone. EEs make this happen.
2
Chip Packages

• Chip packages allow tiny pads on the IC to be
  connected to the circuit board.
• There are many kinds of packages.
• Reliability, cost, and performance are major
  engineering challenges.

3
Circuit Boards

• Circuit boards connect all system components
  together, sometimes with thousands of
  mass-produced conductors fabricated on multiple
  layers.
• Copper and epoxy reinforced with fiberglass are
  the most common materials.
• Higher density ICs require boards with more
  wiring in less space.
• Tiny vias connect the wiring on various layers.

4
Passive Components

• Passive components, particularly capacitors, take
  up a lot of room in portable electronics.
• Technologies being developed at UA aim to
  integrate these devices inside circuit boards,
  reducing area and volume.

5
3-D Systems Research
UA is a national leader among colleges in turning
IC chips into systems by 3-D stacking with dense
through silicon via (TSV) interconnects.
Student researchers process wafers in the HiDEC
cleanroom, a unique fabrication facility
Cross section of copper filled vias to be used as
interconnects. Each via is 1/3 the diameter of a
hair!