Manufacturing cost analysis for electronic packaging

The success of a given microelectronic application is determined in large part by its manufacturing cost, of which a significant portion is attributed to the package that houses it. Available packaging technologies range from relatively low cost, low performance printed circuit boards (PCBs) to higher cost, higher performance multichip modules (MCMs). To be competitive in the microelectronics industry, it is imperative that the manufacturing costs of these packaging alternatives be well understood. Technical Cost Modeling (TCM) is a computer spreadsheet-based technique used to simulate manufacturing costs beginning with the flow of operations that make up a process or technology. This approach is applied to case studies examining printed circuit boards (PCBs), cofired ceramics, and thin film multichip modules (MCMs). Through the understanding of costs such as those described in the case studies, R&D efforts can be directed and products developed in a quantitative, competitive fashion