Process-based cost modeling

The design for manufacturing (DFM) concept has created a significant effort in the cost analysis of the overall product from the beginning of die fabrication to the fully assembled and tested module as a means to evaluate different options in packaging technologies, assembly and test processes, and equipment selection. A method of performing the cost analysis by taking into account the process yield at each step of the process sequence and how the yield at different steps impacts the overall cost of the module is presented. Most of the discussion pertains to the module assembly portion of the electronic assembly (assembling a finished package to a module), but the methodology could be applied to any process sequence. The methodology of modeling the process is outlined, and how to use the outputs from the process models to evaluate the different constituents of the module cost is addressed