Flip chip market trends

Flip chip is expanding in two major areas-one driven by the high performance needs of the microprocessor, ASIC, and high-end DSP devices, the other driven by form factor where die sizes are small and packaging cost must be as minimal as the package itself. New growth in the market is based on movement into lower pin counts such as the mid-range devices, typically the domain of wire bond interconnect. The potential expansion of flip chip technology into the midrange pin counts represents a shift in the adoption of the technology as well as a maturing of the industry. New applications in this area include chip sets and graphics devices. Flip chip is also moving into low pin counts with fewer than 100 I/Os. While often called wafer level packaging, flip chip bumping for low I/O products provides an indication of the cost reduction associated with packaging at the wafer level. New applications include controllers, regulators, memory devices and a number of small die size analog devices. This paper examines the expansion of flip chip in these new applications.