Semiconductor die(s) packaging options and phantoming
This topic is migrated from NXP's Excel based requirement list for medini, entry MEDNXP037. Background: In semiconductor industry it is not the case, that a each semiconductor die always goes exclusively into the same, own semiconductor package and by that creates a "product" for which a safety analysis is done. Instead, the following approaches are used to create a bigger portfolio of semiconductor component family out of a particular single die development effort: Same die is put into different packages: Objective is to provide the same functionality with different robustness levels with regard to environmental conditions. E.g. cheaper packages with a small operational temperature range. More expensive packages with a wide temperature range. Of course these packages differ also from failure rate perspective. This shall be reflected in safety analysis for each particular component of the family. Phantoming of functionality: Objective is to provide a family of products with different features, based on the same die. In order to create the family of differently priced products, certain raw functionalities of the die (e.g. RAM size, availability of IP accelerators, number of communication peripherals, ...) are permanently enabled or disabled e.g. by fuses or NVM bits during semiconductor production - still using the same die. The availability of these functions shall be reflected in the respective components' safety analyses. System-in-Package products: Sometimes, multiple dies go into the same component, e.g. if certain functionalities are best realized in different semiconductor technologies or if a single die would become too big with regard to production yields. A single system-in-package component could e.g. consist of a CPU die, a RAM die, a NVM die and an analog die. Different combinations of dies allow a very flexible product family. While the safety analyses are often done for each die individually, the ultimate product safety analysis shall comprise all dies and the package. Challenge: A particular die goes into many different packaged products. Safety analysis for every product differs. In order to safe efforts, the products' safety analyses shall leverage and reuse as much as possible the individual die safety analyses. The intention of this topic is to discuss the options to do this and to potentially identify medini improvement for higher safety analysis efficiency.
