System-in-Package Technology: Opportunities and Challenges

In 2006, the leading wireless phone industry has introduced literally hundreds of new, different wireless phones, which have been manufactured in approximately 1 billion units, generating revenue of about $128B. The semiconductor revenue has been about $33B. The ASP is declining, both in the wireless phone and semiconductor industry. In order to fix that, Moore's Law is being inverted: instead of getting twice the transistors for the same cost, the wireless phones industry seeks to obtain the same number of transistors for half the cost. This is making system-on-chip (SoC) no longer a viable solution. System-in-package (SiP) looks much more promising. Lack of EDA solutions - especially the A of automation - has so far slowed down the ramp-up of SiP. In this paper we describe the landscape and present a SiP platform solution which addresses the challenges of simplification, cost reduction, quality and reliability improvement, yet allowing exploiting the most recent advances in IC packaging.