Porto Vila do Conde, Portugal – October 31, 2013 – NANIUM SA, Europe’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, today announced the introduction of improved dielectric materials and process solutions for its fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) technology and embedded wafer-level ball grid array (eWLB). These improvements increase eWLB reliability, enabling the expansion of existing technology platforms into more demanding markets and applications, such as medical devices, aerospace, and automotive.

The first eWLB products produced using improved material and process solutions, developed by NANIUM in collaboration with one of its key customers and their material suppliers, feature diverse package configurations primarily in terms of package size and thickness. These packages have successfully received quality recognition from two of NANIUM's major eWLB customers and have entered the mass production phase.

Armando Tavares, President and CEO of NANIUM, stated, “We are investing significant resources and effort to advance leading packaging technologies. Achieving such higher reliability enables eWLB technology to enter new application fields and markets, providing us with diverse opportunities.”

Jan Vardaman, President and CEO of Techsearch International, stated that according to market research data, over 600 million FOWLP packages were shipped in 2012, and the market is expected to more than double by 2017. Devices using these packages include baseband processors, RF and wireless combo chips, application processors, and integrated power management units. President Vardaman said, “FOWLP is an attractive solution in many respects.” "One of them is that it provides a small package capable of handling the high I/O found in application processors. It can also be manufactured in a System-in-Package (SiP) form factor, where various dies utilizing different silicon technologies are incorporated into a single, small package," he mentioned.

eWLB is a FOWLP technology that achieves cost optimization by allowing an increase in the number of I/Os while reducing the form factor. This technology is particularly suitable for very high-frequency applications, as it provides excellent electrical and thermal performance through shorter, more precise connections and reduced material layers. Nanium’s new eWLB package exceeded 1,000 cycles in part-level temperature cycling tests (TCT -55 to 125°C) according to JEDEC JESD47 (Condition B) and 1,000 cycles in board-level temperature cycling demonstration tests (TCoB -40 to 125°C) according to IPC-9701 (Condition TC3).