Wafer-level packaging
technology of packaging an integrated circuit while still part of the wafer
Wafer-level packaging (WLP) is a process in integrated circuit manufacturing where packaging components are attached to an integrated circuit (IC) before the wafer – on which the IC is fabricated – is diced. In WLP, the top and bottom layers of the packaging and the solder bumps are attached to the integrated circuits while they are still in the wafer. This process differs from a conventional process, in which the wafer is sliced into individual circuits (dice) before the packaging components are attached.
WLP is essentially a true chip-scale package (CSP) technology, since the resulting package is practically of the same size as the die. Wafer-level packaging allows integration of wafer fab, packaging, test, and burn-in at wafer level in order to streamline the manufacturing process undergone by a device from silicon start to customer shipment. As of 2009, there is no single industry-standard method of wafer-level packaging.
A major application area of WLPs is their use in smartphones due to the size constraints. For example, the Apple iPhone 5 has at least eleven different WLPs, the Samsung Galaxy S3 has six WLPs and the HTC One X has seven. Functions provided WLPs in smartphones include sensors, power management, and wireless. The iPhone 7 was rumored to use fan-out wafer-level packaging technology in order to achieve a thinner and lighter model.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wafer-level packaging” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.