Market Trends: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

Flip chip, as the name implies, is a means of chip assembly whereby the chip is attached face down (active Integrated Circuit (IC) side down) to the substrate. Flip chip technology was invented by IBM in 1961 and is now 51 years old. This development allowed IBM to be the leader in producing high performance circuits. The method for production that IBM employed was expensive and limited its widespread use. IBM kept this technology captive until the mid 1990s. As it is well known IBM created the technology for its advanced computing needs. This technology utilized ceramic carriers and was suitable for high power dissipation. Although the original “controlled collapse chip connection,” also known as (C4), concept utilized solder coated copper balls to form the interconnect, high lead (97/3) solder evaporated through a molybdenum stencil became the staple of the technology for decades. IBM kept this technology captive, and the intellectual property (IP) protected and secret for many years past the original Patents useful lifetime.