Definition: chip package

The housing that integrated circuits (chips) are placed in. Chip packaging requires manufacturing expertise that is very different than making the wafers. Increasingly, chip packages are extremely complicated with chips stacked on top of each other in a 3D architecture (see TSMC 3DFabric).

A chip package is either plugged into the circuit board and soldered underneath (through-hole mounting) or soldered onto the board (surface mount). Being able to provide more interconnections to a bare chip (bare die) that is increasingly shrinking in size is an ever-present problem. In addition, smaller package sizes allow more chips to be placed inside phones and other handheld devices.

Surface-mounted ball grid array (BGA) and quad flatpack (QFP) are common chip packages today (see below). See CDIP, CERDIP, CERQUAD, CLCC, DIP, flatpack, PLCC, QFP, MCM, MCP, SOP, SOIC, SOJ, TSOP and ZIP.

Socket-Mounted Package

This is the first type of chip package, which is soldered onto the circuit board. The chip is wired to the sides of the rectangular area. Less frequently used today, the surface-mount method is more common.

Wire Bonding

This Microchip microcontroller is approximately 4x5mm. It is mounted in this glass package to show the wire bonding that transfers the signals to and from the chip. See Microchip Technology.

A 3D Ball Grid Array (BGA)

The top BGA package typically contains RAM, which can also be a multi-die module itself, while the bottom BGA holds the logic chip (the processor). The light green elements are the BGA substrates, and the PCB is the printed circuit board. See BGA.

Quad Flatpack (QFP)

QFP packages come in a variety of sizes and types. In this example, the gull-wing leads on all sides are soldered onto the surface of the circuit board. See QFP.

They Don't Get Much Smaller

These microcontrollers from Microchip are about as small as they come, and the packages are downright minuscule. See microcontroller.