Page 43 - System on Package_ Miniaturization of the Entire System

20 Cha pte r O n e

functions for computing, communication, consumer, and biomedical applications—in a
small system package no greater than the size of Intel’s Pentium processor package
(Figure 1.19). Thus, SOP can be thought of as the “package is the system.”
As such it combines the package and system board (as shown in Figure 1.2) into a
system package. The fundamental basis of SOP is illustrated in Figure 1.20, which
consists of two parts—the digital CMOS or IC part with its components and the system
package part with its components. What is new and different about SOP is the system
package part that miniaturizes the current milliscale components in this part to
microscale in the short term and nanoscale in the long term (Figure 1.18). Thus SOP
reduces the size of the 80 to 90 percent of the non-IC part of the system by a factor of
1000 in the short term (from milli to microscale) and in the long term by a factor of a
million (from milli to nanoscale).
The SOP paradigm brings synergy between CMOS and system integration, and this
synergy overcomes both the fundamental and integration shortcomings of SOC and SIP,
which are limited by CMOS. While silicon technology is great for transistor density
improvements from year to year, it is not an optimal platform for the integration system
components such as power sources, thermal structures, packages, boards, and passives.
These are highlighted in Figure 1.20. Two good examples for which CMOS is not good are
front-end RF electronics and optoelectronics. This system-package driven size reduction
has benefits of higher performance, lower cost, and higher reliability, just like with ICs. The
cost advantages of system integration over digital CMOS integration for the same
components are exemplified in Figure 1.21. In general, costs of any manufacturing technology
can be simply viewed as throughput-driven cost and investment-driven cost.
In theory, there should be other factors such as yield and materials and labor. Most
major thin-film technologies including liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), plasma panels,

System integration

Power sources

IC integration
Thermal
structures SRAM CMOS

Boards and
packages Processors
Memory
Flash
Cables and
connectors memory Graphics
Passives Baseband
R, L, C, filters, antennas,
waveguides, MEMS
Thin
actives

FIGURE 1.20 Fundamental basis of SOP with two parts: the digital CMOS IC regime and system regime.