SPIE Journal Paper | 1 October 2005
KEYWORDS: Packaging, Semiconducting wafers, Standards development, Electronics, Semiconductors, Sensors, Microopto electromechanical systems, Nanolithography, Molecular nanotechnology, Manufacturing
In a mature industry, all elements of the supply chain are available and are more or less in balance. Mainstream technologies are defined and well supported by a chain of product differentiation companies. Those focus companies offer services ranging from consultancy to manufacturing, where subcontracting is an essential element in the industrialization. Their specialization and dedication to one or a few elements in the technology increases professionalism and efficiency. The MOEMS industry, however, is still in its growing stage. After forming many companies aimed at the development of products and the production of components and systems, we see now many companies concentrating on the delivery of services to this industry. These services are: design and engineering, foundries, assembly and packaging, processing, and design simulation software. For manufacturing suppliers and customers, the lack of industry standards and mainstream technologies are serious drawbacks. Insight into the availability and trends in technology is important to make the right choices in the field of industrialization and production. This awareness was the reason we performed a detailed study of the companies supplying commercial services in this field. This work focuses on one important part of this study: packaging and assembly. This tends to remain a bottleneck at the end of the design cycle, often delaying and sometimes preventing industrialization and commercialization. For nearly all MEMS/MOEMS products, literally everything comes together in packaging and assembly. This is the area of full integration: electrical, mechanical, optical fluidic, magnetic, etc., functionalities come together. The problems associated with the concentration of functionalities forms a big headache for the designer. Conflicting demands, of which functionality versus economics is only one, and technical hurdles have to be overcome. Besides that, packaging and assembly is by nature application-specific, and solutions are not always transferable from one pr
