Advanced substrates for wireless terminals

It has been estimated recently that within few years there will be more wireless terminals connected to the Internet and related services than there will be fixed equipment (desktop PCs, etc.). This means that the portable equipment needs high performance and high functionality combined with small size and low energy consumption, all this at low cost. Inevitably, very high packaging efficiency is needed and new packaging and substrate technologies will be required. Area array packages, especially chip scale package and flip chip, can provide minimal package size but the new packages require much higher routing capability from the substrates than before. New substrate technologies, such as microvia printed wiring boards have actively been developed in the last years, and they can meet the challenges for some time. However, with the fast integrated circuit development, there is clearly demand for technologies that give the solutions for the future.