Page 19 - System on Package_ Miniaturization of the Entire System

Foreword

n 1994, it was my pleasure as the incoming president of Georgia Tech to participate
in the inauguration of the Institute’s first National Science Foundation center of
Iexcellence, the Microsystems Packaging Research Center. Directed by Professor Rao
Tummala, the Center was designed to take an innovative new approach to packaging
chips into ultraminiaturized single component systems that would serve multiple
purposes. Through the auspices of the Center, and for the first time at Georgia Tech,
experts from different disciplines on our campus were linked with like minded experts
from other universities and industries around our nation and the world to create a
powerful team whose combined efforts magnified the impact of the individuals
themselves. It was a bold undertaking, requiring not only the best technical ideas, but
also a new approach to system testbed research involving a large diverse team of faculty
and students and managing information. It was a high risk, but high payoff strategy.
Not all of the faculty experts Georgia Tech needed were in place at the outset and
this led to recruiting new talented people who were glad to join us because of the
exciting prospects that lay ahead. We also recognized the need to develop cutting edge
facilities, including extensive special-purpose clean room infrastructure. These
investments, along with the leadership of Professor Tummala, led to the elevation of
Georgia Tech to a leadership and pioneering position among universities in the
important field ultraminiaturized systems based on the System-on-Package platform
concept.
The SOP technology described in this book was funded by NSF, industry, and the
Georgia Research Alliance over a 12-year period from 1995–2007. During this period,
the Center involved 55 faculty and senior researchers from electrical, mechanical,
materials science, and chemical engineering departments at Georgia Tech and 160 global
companies. A remarkable 600 Ph.D and MS students took part in the pioneering SOP
R&D, and they are now acting as the industry leaders in driving the next generation
developments using the SOP technologies that they developed.at Georgia Tech.
The SOP technology introduced in this book promises over the next two decades to
miniaturize electronic and bio-electronic systems by a factor of a thousand to a million.
It introduces the idea of a System Integration Law, known as the Second Law of
Electronics for miniaturization of the entire system. It complements the well known
Moore’s Law for integrated circuits which applies principally to a small part of the
system. Because of the miniaturization that SOP enables, along with the increased
number of system functions enabled, it is expected to lead to new generation products
in consumer electronics, healthcare, energy, and automotive industries.

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