Practical considerations for the design, performance, and application of plastic BGA packages

As the number of available package types expand to include Plastic Ball Grid Array (PBGA), and performance limitations become more apparent, vast amounts of new information must be properly utilized to make the best design choices at a package level. PBGAs can theoretically satisfy many packaging requirements, but present themselves as a greater risk since they have not yet been thoroughly characterized. Specifically, new product development is jeopardized by integrated circuit performance that can be limited by PBGA, printed circuit board, and system level design, so a critical need is approaching for concurrent engineering design techniques and modeling tools. A design, performance, and application matrix is discussed and may be the first step in focusing these new methods of evaluation on PBGA package technology.