Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1509873
28 PCB007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2023 When I started working in 1970, our IC and RF substrates were 100 mm in diameter (many were sapphire, as HP used silicon-on-sapphire, not pure silicon) and PCB panels were 12" x 12" (305 mm x 305 mm). Because of the pop- ularity of our HP-35 scientific calculator, by 1972 we were making LED COB substrates on a new high-temperature laminate in 12" x 16" panels plated with nickel and silver (for ther- mocompression bonding). To reduce costs and improve productivity and capability, the panel size has constantly crept up to 21" x 26" (Figure 1). e new standard for IC substrate panels is 600 mm x 600 mm (Figure 1) and a production panel (Figure 2). e semiconductor packaging industry's move to a 600 mm square panel provides the ability to segment the 600-mm panels into four 300-mm square sub-panels for use with conventional 300-mm round wafer probe test equipment. is was a driving factor for the short term (Figure 2). Extending process capa- Figure 1: Organic substrate (IC and RF) panels have constantly increased in size over the years, up to 21" x 26" with 600 mm x 600 mm being the new standard for semiconductor panels. Figure 2: First results of PLC 2.0 is a fully populated panel with embedded chips. (Source: Fraunhofer IZM 2 )