Avago Technologies Develops WaferCap Chip Scale Technology

(Business News & Technology News, 14 May 2008)

Avago Technologies has announced a breakthrough in packaging technology that brings wireless chip micro-miniaturization and high frequency performance to new levels. Avago's innovative WaferCap is the industry's first semiconductor-based chip scale packaging (CSP) technology that has the potential to reach the 100GHz frequency range for a SMT packaging. WaferCap CSP has the same dimensions as an 0402 component and can reduce the amount of PCB space an RF device occupies by over 50 percent. Currently measuring 1x0.5mm with a height of only 0.25mm, WaferCap packaged parts reduce the thickness of any assembly, providing a new level of design flexibility in device placement that will change the way RF designers think about a variety of wireless product designs.

Avago's new WaferCap CSP technology allows high frequency devices to be batch packaged cost effectively using standard semiconductor processing techniques. With WaferCap, the air cavity created under the "lid" and immediately above the circuit makes it possible to achieve higher frequency ranges. The use of vias removes the need for costly and performance limiting bond wires. Additionally, direct contact between the package substrate and the RF MMIC improves RF performance because it reduces the RF signal path and provides less resistance when compared to typical SMT designs.

It also improves the heat transfer from the device to the assembly by removing the intervening package. The improved thermal condition and reduced number of bond wires greatly increase the reliability of the parts.

The micro-miniaturization benefits of WaferCap CSP reduce the number of required components around the device and dramatically open up PCB space in an RF design. It also creates new avenues in which RF components can be placed. The elimination of wire bonds in the packaging process gives the device the flexibility and simplicity to fit in a variety of positions in a wide range of RF architectures.

No special tooling is required as assembly is done with standard SMT techniques. The devices can be directly soldered onto a board using standard soldering techniques. Traditional mass production "pick and place" or chip shooter machines can easily place a WaferCap packaged device onto any RF architecture.

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