Development of an innovative chip technology is not all that is needed to achieve successful market positioning of new products. A further important factor is advanced housing and processing technology that does not hamper IC performance. In this regard, the announcement by Intel (Electronics Weekly 27.01.2006: ‘Copper Posts Replace Solder Balls at Intel’) is highly significant in relation to future developments. To package its latest 65 nm Dual Core Processors (Presler and Yonah) Intel is using copper pillar bumps on the chip side, which are then soldered to the PCB substrate using flip chip technology. Prismark draws similar conclusions in his latest study from 2005 on the development of “Bumped Wafer Production for Flip Chip Technology.” In this study, the author predicts that electroplating will be established worldwide over the next 3 years as the most important bumping method. On the other hand, the proportion of copper pillar bumped chips to solder ball bumps will rise at an increasing rate and will successively replace wire bonding in processor packaging. 

This article originally appeared in Global SMT & Packaging magazine 6.5 - May 2006.

Download the full article (free) in PDF format.

Joachim Kloeser joined AEMtec in November 2005 as Director Development and Technology. He has more than fifteen years’ experience in the research and development for flip chip and bumping technologies. Prior to joining AEMtec Joachim
Kloeser served as European Sales Manager for ATOTEC, a manufacturer of metallisation for electronics located in Berlin. He worked from 1992 until 2000 as Head of the Advanced Packaging Department for the Fraunhofer IZM (German Research and Innovation Centre for Packaging and Microelectronics) and was Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at EKRA GmbH.

Dipl. Ing. Ernst A. Weißbach is owner of HTC (High Tech Consulting) and was co-founder of AEMtec, that was founded in 2000 as a spin-off from Infineon. For more than 30 years he has been holding various positions in the electronic industry and he is currently serving AEMtec as consultant for Sales, Marketing and Technology.

Keywords : Copper Pillar Bump, Flip Chip, Electroplating, IC Interconnection

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