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Advanced Packaging
The advanced packaging team groups all research projects related to realizing an electrical connection between the chip and a substrate. These substrates range from traditional printed circuit boards to flexible polyimide or polyester foils. The chips are either mounted on top of the substrate or embedded into the substrate.
- Foil-based interconnections: creating circuitry for mounting
components on low-cost plastic films, mainly PET in combination with copper
or aluminium. The “adaptive circuitry” approach compensates for
misplacement of the chip by dynamic realization of a fan-out between the
chip and the foil. Target applications for foil-based technologies are
large-area sensor systems and smart labels for logistic monitoring.
- UTCP: The ultra-thin chip package combines low thickness,
extreme flexibility and high functional density. The chip is encapsulated
in between spin-on PI layers and the fan-out interconnection is realized
using microvias and thin-film metallization. The total thickness of the
UTCP is less than 70 um. Medical BAN patches and mobile devices are the
targeted application areas.
- Component embedding: Several technologies for the embedding of
components in rigid, flexible or low-cost plastic substrates are available
at Cmst. Both direct embedding of chips in PCBs as the embedding of UTCPs
in flexible PCBs can dramatically increase the functional density of the
system, resulting in a smaller form factor. Thanks to the low thickness of
the UTCP, several of these packages can be stacked to further reduce the
size of the system. A final technology that was developed recently in
cooperation with the Holst Centre, is the foil-based embedding, where
active and passive components are embedded into a low-cost plastic
substrate.
- Advanced Implantable Packaging for Biomedical Electronic Devices
Thanks to its long history of research into PCB manufacturing and assembly, a strong competence has been built for processing and evaluating electronic systems. This know-how is also applied to cost and yield modelling as well as high-frequency characterization.
Examples :
- Smart Blister with face-up integrated NFC radio chip using self-assembly and adaptive interconnections by laser scribing :
- Smart label with two chips and all 10 passive components embedded in a complete flat, 250µm thick, flexible substrate :
- First test vehicle with embedded chips realized as part of the Hiding Dies project in 2005 :
- A smart sensor node featuring two embedded off-the-shelf ICs, embedded in the flexible circuit board using UTCP Technology :
