Over the last few decades, major advancements in the semiconductor supply chainhave occurred. These advancements have provided standard foundry processes,physical theories that explain device models, accurate and efficient software,and test equipment. Today, front-end components up to 95 GHz (E-band) and beyondare either commercially available or can be specifically commissioned. In allthese advancements, packaging has been the one area where investments andtechnology have lagged.

In many cases, packaging presents the major bottleneck to overall performance. Astrivial as the connection of components may sound, the unfortunate reality isthat the signal integrity of interconnects quickly limits performance at highfrequencies. Engineers in the digital world are now coming up against some ofthese limitations, and only recently has the field made the investmentsnecessary for these signal integrity issues to be overcome. Even microwaveengineers, whose whole world is high frequency, struggle to find acceptablepackaging solutions. Many will be faced with designs riddled with cripplingmismatch loss, coupling loss, and unacceptable resonances.

For many engineering projects, cost is also an important design criterion anddifferentiating feature. Without careful, directed analysis, engineers may findtheir projects behind schedule and over budget. Further, lower operating costscan be achieved with package designs that encourage simple fabrication,assembly, handling, and test. Packaging research helps to advance new designtechniques and package processes. For these reasons, packaging is rapidlygaining attention as a necessary growth field.