Packaging Glossary

Access hole

A hole or series of holes in successive layers of a multilayer board that provide(s) access to the surface of the land in one or more layers of the board.

Ag

Silver; a metallic element, capable of a high polish.

Al

Aluminum; a silvery metallic element, remarkable for its lightness.

Alloy

A composite of two or more elements, of which at least one is metal.

Aluminum oxide

An abrasive used in grinding operations. Also, the native oxide growth that occurs on freshly deposited aluminum.

Ambient

The environment that surrounds a system or component.

Ambient temperature

1: The temperature of the surrounding environment, that comes into contact with the device. 2: the temperature of the environment that comes into contact with a semiconductor device being tested for thermal resistance.

American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

An organization that compiles and publishes computer industry standards.

Antifuse

A two-terminal device that is a highly resistive element in its unprogrammed state and is programmed to a low impedance. Typical programmed impedances range from 25 to 500 ohms, depending on the specific antifuse material, process, manufacturing, technology, and programming.

Antifuse FPGA

An FPGA based on a technology that utilizes amorphous silicon to make the interconnect. Antifuse FPGAs are one-time-programmable, nonvolatile, live at power up, and secure from tampering and readback.

Au

Gold; a malleable yellow metallic element.

Backgrind

An operation using an abrasive on the back side of a substrate to achieve the necessary thinness for scribing, cutting, and packaging of die.

BGA

Ball Grid Array; a type of IC packaging featuring solder ball pin connections.

Burn-in

A process where a device is subjected to electrical or physical stress to simulate actual or accelerated use. It is designed to verify the function of the device under test and also to weed out any possible devices with latent defects.

CFC

Chlorofluorocarbon

CPGA

Ceramic Pin Grid Array

CPLD

Complex Programmable Logic Device. Usually a simple low-density programmable logic solution. Typically contains macrocells that are interconnected through a central Global Routing Pool. This type of architecture provides moderate speed and predictable performance. Traditionally targeted towards low-end consumer products.

CQFP

Ceramic Quad Flat pack

CS

Chip Scale Package

Dissipative material

An ESD protective material having a surface resistivity greater than 106 but not greater than 1012 ohms/square. (106=1,000,000,000 and 1012=1,000,000,000,000).

Delamination

A separation of materials within a package; typically delamination refers to a separation of the die from the substrate.

EIA

Electronic Industries Association

EIAJ

Electronic Industries Association of Japan

ESD

Electrostatic discharge; a sudden transfer of an ESD voltage potential from one object to another with a lower potential either by inductance or direct contact.

ESD label

Industry standard ESD labels are placed on packing materials to inform users that ESD precautions and proper handling procedures must be utilized to insure the quality of the inside of the IC.

ESD packaging material

A material capable of limiting the generation of static electricity. ESD packaging materials are classified in accordance with their surface resistivity as conductive, static dissipative, and the less effective antistatic.

ESD protective packaging

Packaging with ESD protective materials or properties to prevent damage to ESD sensitive devices.

FBGA

Fine Pitch (1.0 mm) Plastic Ball Grid Array

Flash

A nonvolatile memory element that uses charge stored on a floating gate to indicate a logic state of 1 or 0.

Flash FPGA

An FPGA (See FPGA) that is based on Flash technology for controlling the switching of the interconnect. Flash-based FPGAs are nonvolatile, live on power-up, reprogrammable, and secure from reverse engineering or cloning.

FPGA

Field Programmable Gate Array. A very complex PLD. The FPGA usually has an architecture that comprises a large number of simple logic blocks, a number of input/output pads, and a method to make random connections between the elements. The largest fastest programmable logic devices have gate counts running into the millions. These devices are user customizable and programmable on an individual device basis. Valued for their flexibility by designers.

Fuse

This is a two-terminal device that is normally a low resistive element and is programmed or "blown" resulting in an open or high impedance connection. Typical materials are nichrome and polysilicon. This element is inherently radiation-hardened.

GaAs

Gallium Arsnide, a semiconductor compound of gallium and arsenic used for the fabrication of semiconductor devices.

Green

Components free of halides, bromide, chlorine, antimony, phosphorus, tributyltin oxide (TBTO)

Heat sink/Heat spreader

A heat-conductive metal form attached to a device package to transmit heat away from the source.

Hermetic

A condition of seal between the device cavity and the outside environment.

Hermetic seal

A coat applied in the final stage of thermal processing to seal the ceramic package and to protect the device from the external environment.

IC

Integrated circuit. A single chip of silicon duplicates a semiconductor device where the function of a circuit is composed of many components such as transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc.

J-Lead

An integrated circuit package lead configuration that in cross-section resembles the letter J.

JTAG

Joint Test Action Group, set of specifications that enables board and functional verification.

JEDEC

Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council, an international organization that establishes industry standards for IC manufacturers.

Junction temperature (T_J)

The temperature of the semiconductor junction, where the major part of the heat is generated, when measuring the thermal resistance of semiconductor device packages. The measured junction temperature is indicative only of the temperature in the immediate vicinity of the element used to measure the temperature. Junction temperature is measured in degrees Celsius.

Lead coplanarity

In the manufacture of molded plastic packages, the vertical position of a lead foot with respect to a reference plane that is created by the three leads with feet most extended from the bottom surface of the package body.

Leadframe

Sheet metal framework upon which an integrated circuit is attached, wirebonded, and transfer molded with epoxy.

MSL

Moisture Sensitivity Level, a level assigned a device family derived from testing that indicates that device's ability to accept exposure to moisture without failure during manufacturing.

MTBF

Mean Time Between Failures, a measure of device reliability expressed in hours.

MTTF

Mean Time To Failure, a measure of device reliability expressed in hours typically used to measure the time to initial failure.

N

Nitrogen, a gaseous element

Ni

Nickel, a metallic element

Nonvolatile

Describes a memory element that keeps its contents/configuration state when power is removed from the device. The element may be one-time-programmable or "reprogrammable."

One-Time Programmable

(OTP) This device can be programmed only once; it's contents cannot be changed. Typically these devices are fuse or antifuse based.

Package

A container for a die (often plastic or ceramic) that provides protection and connection to the next higher level of integration.

Passivation

Deposition of a scratch-resistant material, such as silicon nitride and/or silicon dioxide, to prevent deterioration of electronic properties caused by water, ions, and other external contaminants. The final deposition layer in processing.

PCB

Printed Circuit Board

Pb

Lead, a heavy, soft, bluish-gray, metallic element used in solder compositions and other alloys.

PBGA

Plastic Ball Grid Array

Pd

Palladium, a metallic element resembling platinum.

PLCC

Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier, A package with J-leads on all sides.

PLD

Programmable Logic Device, IC that can be programmed to perform a variety of logical operations, a network of programmable electronic gates used to create a custom logic circuit.

Polyamide

Typically used as passivation on the die surface.

Popcorn

May be electrically detected as an open or intermittent contact. Visual defects may not be obvious, but may include cracked package, missing package material, bulging or deformed package.

Power dissipation

The heating power applied to the device to cause a junction to specified reference point temperature difference, used in the measurement of the thermal resistance of semiconductor devices.

PQFP

Plastic Quad Flat Pack

Printed Circuit Board (PCB)

A composite of organic and inorganic material, with external and internal conducting or low-resistivity paths that allow mechanical support and electrical connection of components.

QFN

Quad Flat No-lead, term for surface mount technology flat packages with no-leads on the sides of the packages.

QFP

Quad Flat Pack, generic term for surface mount technology flat packages with leads on four sides.

Reflow

The process of creating the solder interconnection from the component to the PCB.

Reliability

The reliability of a device or package is the probability that it will adequately perform its specified purpose for a specified period of time under specified environmental conditions.

Reprogrammable

These devices can have their configuration loaded more than once. SRAM-based devices may be reloaded without restriction. Many other forms of reprogrammable elements have restrictions on the number of write cycles, although they are high enough not to be of practical concern for most applications.

RoHS

Reduction of Hazardous Substances, Directive issued by the European Union to reduce the use of 6 hazardous substances.

• Lead and its compounds
• Mercury and its compounds
• Cadmium and its compounds
• Hexavalent Chromium and its compounds
• PBB (polybromobiphenyl)
• PBDE (polybrominated diphenyl ethers)

RQFP

Power Plastic Quad Flat Pack

Sn

Tin, a metallic element

SiN

Silicon Nitride, typically used as passivation on the die surface.

SRAM

Static RAM. SRAM is used for the cache memory and registers in computer systems. SRAM typically requires four or six transistors per bit.

Temperature cycling

A stress test in which components are repeatedly exposed to extreme heat and cold.

Tie bars

The metal bars that hold the die attach pad of a leadframe to the rails of the leadframe. After molding, these connections to the rails are trimmed away.

TiN

Titanium Nitride

Tin whisker

A hair-like single crystal growth formed on the metal surface.

TQFP

Thin (1.4 mm) Plastic Quad Flat Pack

Voids

Over etch defect.

Vacuum wand

A tool that uses suction on the back of an individual wafer or package device to pick up the wafer or device.

VQFP

Very Thin (1.0 mm) Plastic Quad Flat Pack

Wafer

A thin slice with parallel faces cut from a semiconductor crystal.

Wave soldering

A technique for solder application and reflow in which a wave of liquid solder is directed onto the underside of a printed circuit board to solder the components.