Popular Science in a Few Words: Talking About Chip Packaging and Testing

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Popular Science in a Few Words: Talking About Chip Packaging and Testing

Chip packaging and testing refers to chip packaging and chip testing, which is the third specialized link in the chip industry chain. The chip packaging and testing factory will standardize, mature and platform the chip packaging and testing procedures that it is good at, and specialize in undertaking the chip packaging and chip testing tasks of chip design companies.
The main function of chip packaging is to provide a rugged protective shell for tiny, delicate, and fragile die die, and at the same time connect the dense and tiny electrical signal contacts on the die to the larger electrical signal pins or solder joints outside the package, so that the chip can be easily soldered in the electronic system. Chip testing is the final step in chip production, where functional and performance tests are carried out before sorting, marking, and packaging.

图1. 几种芯片封装结构示意图(图源：互联网)
In the early days, the process technology of the packaging and testing industry was not difficult, and some of them were carried out manually and semi-automatically, and the number of technicians was large, which belonged to the labor-intensive processing industry (Figure 2, left). Nowadays, the technology of the packaging and testing industry is becoming more and more difficult, the degree of automation is very high, and the investment in equipment is large, such as 3D packaging, micro packaging, system-level packaging and other automation procedures, a lot of wafer manufacturing process technology has been introduced, and the mid-to-high-end packaging and testing plant should belong to the high-end processing and manufacturing industry (Figure 2 right).
Figure 2. The chip packaging and testing industry has shifted from labor-intensive to high-end processing and manufacturing (Source: Internet)

With the continuous expansion and change of chip applications, the chip packaging and testing factory undertakes many chip packaging and testing needs and types, and the packaging and testing factory must continue to develop new packaging and testing technologies, constantly update and purchase new equipment, in order to meet the changing market demand, which is a demand-driven market. At the same time, the improvement of packaging technology has further raised the expectations of users, and a higher level of chip packaging and testing tasks has emerged. This is a spiraling progress process in which packaging and testing technology and chip applications promote each other. Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the progress of chip packaging and testing technology since the 70s of the last century.

Figure 3: Schematic diagram of the progress of chip packaging and testing technology (source: Internet)
The family of standard chip packaging processes is large and growing. Some of the standard chip packaging processes are shown in Figure 4. With the continuous emergence of new packaging technologies, the customized packaging processes for special chips have also entered the standard chip packaging process family after they have been adopted by more users.
图4.一些Standard chip packaging process (source: Internet)
Chip package types can be broadly divided into two types: dual in-line (DIP) and surface mount (SMD). From the structural point of view, chip packaging has experienced the early transistor TO packaging, double in-line packaging, followed by SOP small outline packaging, and then gradually derived SOJ (J-type pin small outline package), TSOP (thin small outline package), VSOP (very small outline package), SSOP (small outline SOP), TSSOP (thin and small outline SOP), SOT (small outline transistor), SOIC (small outline integrated circuit) and so on. In terms of material medium, including metal, ceramic, and plastic, military-grade and aerospace-grade chips are mostly packaged in metal. In addition, chip packaging is divided into single-chip packaging and multi-chip packaging, and unit-level packaging and system-in-package.
Figure 5. Some common chip packaging styles (Source: Internet)

The chip packaging and testing industry is similar to the chip manufacturing industry, with the continuous progress of chip technology, manufacturing equipment needs to be constantly updated. Restricted by application scenarios, chips continue to pursue lightness, thinness and smallness, and the packaging style of chips is also varied, and the equipment required for the packaging process must be continuously upgraded. Therefore, the capital investment in the purchase and update of equipment in the chip packaging and testing plant is large. The chip packaging and testing industry is a high-end processing and manufacturing industry, which is an asset-heavy and technology-intensive high-tech industry.