PCB Design Blogs

This blog was written by a guest blogger – Mark Beesley of AT&S. His company is a global leader in supplying advanced interconnect solutions to the high-end electronics sector.  AT&S leads HERMES, a European consortium focused on developing the supply chain for embedded components in PCB and IC Packaging.

“You’re only as good as your last product …”

We consumers are pretty hard judges, aren’t we?  No matter how many man-years go into the development of a new product, it is put on sale and judged on its relative merits … looks, feel, performance and yes of course affordability…compared to a myriad of other brands, models, and devices from dozens of manufacturers.

But it is fair.

We all have the same opportunity to take what is in front of us and create our best-ever product, and we know that the market will decide.

That’s why it’s a good time to take a look at the emerging use of technologies that break barriers, combine functions and offer quantum steps in performance.  Imagine being able to step change miniaturization, improve reliability, and reduce supply chain complexity and overall cost with one decision? 

Such a potential game-changing technology is embedded die in laminate (for example, AT&S’s latest major technology innovation, ECP® ), and there are reasons why now is the right time to consider it as a viable packaging solution. First of all – the challenges in the Design environment are being solved.  Yes, we have to worry about the semiconductor, the IC substrate and the PCB all in one package but thankfully we have tools like Cadence’s Allegro (v16.5) to help out.

Secondly, the design benefits start to dramatically outweigh the risks with using a new approach.

Up until now, the miniaturization opportunity did not justify the challenges in the design and supply chain.  Taking this simple balance of pros versus cons, it simply was never going to take off.  Something had to change.  That’s why, when AT&S set up the production fab for its advanced ECP packaging operation, an investment in going beyond the state-of-the-art capability was the focus.  With the latest High Density Interconnect (HDI) capabilities and the obsession with highest possible yields, AT&S has managed to overcome the entry hurdles and released ECP in to the commercial market – with first products demonstrating ground-breaking advances in SiP (System in Package) form factor and performance.

We see the market demands for the next steps in miniaturization, for unbreakable products and for cost-effective eco-friendly technologies, and we believe that ECP offers solutions to the Designer looking to bring her/his best ever product to life.

Take a look at the ECP® technology on our website or e-mail our Product Management team (ecp@ats.net) for more details.

Also feel free to comment on your exploration and experience with embedded technology in PCB or IC Packaging.

Mark Beesley