Worldwide packaging trends for portable products

The main drivers for packaging in highly functional, miniaturized portable products are small form factor and cost. Established technologies such as quad flat packs (QFP) and small outline packages (SOP) have been available to designers for years. Recently, a multitude of packaging solutions have been developed to meet the needs of future portable products. Many companies are tuning to small, high density mounting in the form of ball grid arrays (BGA), chip-size packages (CSP), and flip chip. The choice of technology is based on a portable product's requirements for performance (including size) and cost (including manufacturability). Examination of a number of current products shows an array of different technology mixes. Despite the proliferation of new high density mounting worldwide, many companies are satisfying current needs with peripherally leaded QFPs and SOPs. The high density mounting in some of these products is limited to small multichip packages (MCP) and daughter boards.