Semiconductor Packaging processes have a significant environmental impact. From energy intensive process steps, to materials containing toxic and hazardous components, to drain water pollution caused by solvents and etchants used in both sourced materials as well as packaging process steps, there is a tremendous need for the industry to tackle these issues and work towards more environmentally friendly materials and processes.
Over the years there have been quite some industry-wide drives to explore more sustainable solutions, with some good success stories like the Pb-Free conversion, and other less successful ones, like the drive to eliminate high Pb solders from high power devices. Lack of success in developing and releasing more environmentally friendly materials and processes is not only attributable to technological challenges, but also due to economical reasons. An environmentally friendly solution that costs significantly more than the established solution is very hard to bring to the market.
With the knowledge that any environmentally friendly solution needs to be economically viable in order for it to be adopted, SCIPTech’s new Additive Fan-Out Panel Level packaging technology was conceived with this challenge in mind. It is a packaging platform that greatly reduces the environmental impact of its processes compared to current state of the art and at the same time brings a dramatic manufacturing cost reduction.
This is achieved by eliminating polluting steps like etching, developing and stripping and replacing these redistribution layers (RDL’s) with high speed pure additive steps. It also provides, in cases like Power semiconductors, a low cost Pb free alternative.