Microchip Technology Expands Product Line for Better Hand-Assembly Manufacturing Processes

When it comes to buying a new MP3 player or a cell phone or a laptop, most consumers would want a sleeker model, but loaded with more features.  Microchip Technology (News - Alert) Inc, which is a known name in the fields of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, is all set to keep with this market trend. The company recently announced that its single-I/O bus UNI/O EEPROM devices are now available in miniature, Wafer-Level Chip-Scale and TO-92 packages. This will be available in addition to the 3-pin SOT-23 package.

When it comes to this Microchip EEPROM device, never go by the size of it.  It measures as small as 0.85 mm x 1.38 mm and is no bigger than a die, but the Wafer-Level Chip-Scale Package, or "WLCSP," can greatly support a manufacturing flow using standard pick-and-place machines. The long-leaded, 3-pin TO-92 package is commonly used when the manufacturing flow is a hand-assembly process, or when it is mounted directly on cable assemblies.

According to the company, UNI/O EEPROMs in the WLCSP and TO-92 packages can be the answer to the growing market demands for smaller, but more affordable EEPROM devices.

"Customers continually request smaller, lower-cost EEPROM devices, and the UNI/O EEPROMs in the WLCSP and TO-92 packages are another solution to this ongoing requirement," said Randy Drwinga, vice president of Microchip's Memory Products Division. "Since overall costs include manufacturing, we made sure that these packages were robust enough to support our customers' standard manufacturing process flows."

When a company launches the next generation product, the consumers expect to find more features wrapped in a smaller package and all these for a lower price tag (News - Alert).  The manufacturers should oblige or the consumers won't accept the product.

This can be accomplished in any of these three ways:

• With higher levels of integration
• With the selection of smaller components with fewer pins
• With the utilization of smaller packages

The TO-92 Packages come to help when a company requires to further reduce the overall product size, without increasing the production cost. Since the UNI/O devices only need a single I/O port to communicate with the microcontroller, or "MCU," selecting components in a Chip-Scale package can significantly help in the reduction of overall product size. Even though small size is a factor in any design, the lower overall manufacturing costs from a hand-assembly process can also drive package selection. This is where the thru-hole TO-92 package can be utilized.

"Customers continually request smaller, lower-cost EEPROM devices, and the UNI/O EEPROMs in the WLCSP and TO-92 packages are another solution to this ongoing requirement. Since overall costs include manufacturing, we made sure that these packages were robust enough to support our customers' standard manufacturing process flows," said Randy Drwinga, vice president of Microchip's Memory Products Division.