TABLE OF CONTENTS The electronics industry, the largest in the world, owes its astounding success to the integration of transistors marked by the invention of the integrated circuit nearly a decade after the transistor was demonstrated. But developments and innovations in the electronic component package area should also receive tribute for their role in enabling low-cost consumer electronics. The successful implementation of the plastic nonhermetic package enables high-volume electronics to proceed since cost targets can be achieved. Packaging continues to drop in cost as progress continues in both design and manufacturing. The advent of wafer-level packaging will continue to drive down cost that now averages well under 5 percent of the total component, and newer packages are reducing the package value to about 3 percent of the total cost. But this low total percentage of cost has only been true for nonhermetic plastic packaging. There are many other ways to reduce costs through packaging, since the processes, not the materials, are the key issue. The key is to understand processes and how they are affected by design.
