Current status and future prospects of panel level packaging

Abstract

Demand of lower cost with higher performances has driven the semiconductor industry to develop innovative solutions. One of the new approaches to reduce the overall cost is to switch from wafer to larger size panel format. The panel infrastructure has gained considerable interest from the semiconductor industry and is certainly a promising market due to its cost advantages and economy of scale benefits. Panel level manufacturing has the potential to leverage the knowledge and infrastructure of wafer level packaging as well as PCB / flat panel display / photovoltaic industries. We have identified six key packaging platforms which can be processed on larger surface (rectangular/square) such as FOWLP panel, organic interposer, glass panel interposer, hybrid interposer, embedded die as well as coreless substrate. Over the past years, it's become clear that some panel packages choices will be more suitable than others for successful commercial development. The equipment infrastructure within the advanced packaging supply chain today is mainly based on processing 300mm round wafers. However, to process larger surface, new equipment and optimized materials are required. The key question raised is when the panel industry will take off and how will it evolve? Are the supply chains ready to move to the panel scale manufacturing? What are the challenges / issues involved for the panel adoption to high volume manufacturing? This paper will try to answer these questions and discuss about the current status and future prospects of panel level packaging.