Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1529988
DECEMBER 2024 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 9 Mike Konrad's column delivers an inter- view with Dr. Nava Shpaisman, strategic col- laboration manager at KLA, on advanced packaging technologies coming out of semi- conductor. Some folks in the EMS provider space have stated that they don't see why semi- conductor packaging work matters to EMS companies. I would respond that such an opinion is short-sighted. Read Mike's inter- view (and our coverage of advanced packag- ing and heterogeneous integration over the past couple of years) carefully. e changes will put stress upon pick-and-place at both extremes, large and small; surface planarity will become a key issue to yields. Substrate materials will change. Identical packages with even more configurations will stress component management and MES systems. e power and heat management these chips require will change bills of materials and assembly processes in new ways. ese methods will move into our basic consumer microprocessors. Even photonic intercon- nects are moving to the high-performance chips—now that's definitely disruptive. If you're an EMS supplier, you will be affected; that's why we cover the topic. Soldering is the heartbeat of assembly, and new developments are taking place to match the rest of the innovation in electronics. It's certain we will revisit these topics again, so let us know what you want to read about. We constantly ask, "What do we want our read- ers to learn?" but what we value most is when you tell us what you want to read. I look for- ward to hearing from you. SMT007 Traditional technologies are also adding capabilities, responding to changing market needs. Now, it seems simple and obvious that if component packaging trends weren't shi- ing, soldering technologies would not need to adapt. BGAs are getting huge. Recently, I was discussing the 100 mm and larger BGAs with a CEO of an EMS provider, and he said the joke is that some of these compo- nents are bigger than some of the boards going through the shop. Funny, but true. His observation was that if the line could place the part, then soldering wasn't an issue. ermal coefficients and coplanarity issues, however, are growing concerns. Going the other direction, passives are becoming microscopic and LEDs are so small they're difficult to handle. We lead off this issue with an interview with Stan Farnsworth of PulseForge, who shares an example of how a photonic sys- tem can handle those very small LED arrays. Our cover image is just one example of how photonic soldering can tackle applications traditional soldering methodologies would struggle with. Is photonic soldering the Dvorak keyboard of the soldering world? Today, maybe. But the future remains to be seen. I've also heard that large hardware com- panies, such as Google and Amazon, are encouraging the use of vacuum in convection ovens to eliminate voids. e story is that this technique increases yields and reduces the device's power consumption. In the cell- phone market alone, femtowatts of power reduction per phone accumulates across bil- lions of phones to represent a (positive) dis- ruptive drop in power consumption. Disrup- tive solutions can come from small improve- ments as well as innovative new technolo- gies. Dr. Paul Wild of Rehm ermal Systems examines the solder quality benefits of using vacuum and condensation methods in appro- priate applications. Nolan Johnson is managing editor of SMT007 Magazine. Nolan brings 30 years of career experience focused almost entirely on electronics design and manufacturing. To contact Johnson, click here.