Plastic packaged microcircuits: quality, reliability, and cost issues

Plastic encapsulated microcircuits (PEMs) find their main application in commercial and telecommunication electronics. The advantages of PEMs in cost, size, weight, performance, and market lead-time, have attracted 97% of the market share of worldwide microcircuit sales. However, PEMs have always been resisted in US Government and military applications due to the perception that PEM reliability is low. This work surveys plastic packaging with respect to the issues of reliability, market lead-time, performance, cost, and weight as a means to guide part selection and system design.<
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