How PoP is helping the medical industry
01 October 2010
Simple medical procedures such as checking blood pressure and cholesterol levels have previously meant a visit to the GP or hospital. But modern lifestyles are all about convenience and saving time, and this even extends to people’s health.
As medical equipment becomes more and more advanced, the demand for over the counter testing kits are growing the home diagnostics market. Technological advances have meant that medical equipment is getting smaller and now allow patients to check certain illnesses in their own homes. Gareth Beckett of Axiom Manufacturing Services explains how the new PoP (Package on Package) technology will promise to help this market grow.
Package on Package or PoP, as it is known, allows PCB manufacturers to build up rather than out.
PoP technology involves stacking semiconductor components on top of each other, rather than the traditional method of placing them side by side on the board, thereby reducing circuitry and board space required by up to 43%. This allows the flexible addition of memory chips to compact devices without adding to the bulk of the product, or escalating production costs.
The use of the technology results in shorter device to device interconnects resulting in shorter signal paths; this improves connectivity, reduces EMC emissions and enables manufacturers to make smaller, faster reacting hand-held products, which will be especially useful within the medical industry and the home diagnostic market.
The trend of the consumer’s need for products to be smaller while still being more technologically advanced has risen dramatically over the last few years. One area that this has been at the forefront of this is the mobile phone market. Phones have become smaller yet are now so advanced they are life organisers rather than just being devices to make calls on, like the original mobiles of the 1980s. PoP technology has been vital in making this happen.
PoP assembly techniques are based on the example of the Texas OMAP (Open Multimedia Application Platform) microprocessor, which was developed in conjunction with mobile phone producers.
The ambulatory or home diagnostics market are areas that still have potential to become even bigger due to technology like PoP. Historically, tests to check pregnancy would previously have meant going to the GP, however, today nearly all tests are done in the home first before a visit to the doctor to receive official confirmation.
Other devices are also following suit with blood pressure and heart rate monitors readily available to buy over the counter. PoP will allow for more simple procedures like this to be checked in the home, putting people’s minds at ease while also freeing up NHS resources for more serious illnesses.
The extra space saved on the PCB board allows room for more components to create significantly more memory. This means that products will become more technologically advanced and can include for more animated graphics, such as real life footage on how to use the machines correctly, making the equipment foolproof, easy to use and accessible to everyone.
An area where PoP will also take a central role is within the telehealthcare market. This is where information and communications technology make it possible to transmit and receive complex medical data in various formats across long distances between patients and medical staff and between different health professionals. Examples of where this has worked particularly well are with dialysis and patients with chronic heart problems. These patients can monitor their treatment or heart rate from their own home while being checked by medical professionals in hospitals at the same time.
The new technology will not only benefit the telehealthcare and home diagnostic market tremendously, but PoP will hopefully mean more technically advanced equipment is readily available in hospitals.
An example of where PoP has been used to benefit the medical industry is at a Southern Mississippi heart centre in America, where cardiologists use their mobile phones to help diagnose a patient’s illness before they have even arrived at the hospital. Doctors can view an electrocardiogram taken in the ambulance, the result is a heart attack can be detected and treated faster. This is a great example of how technology is moving forward the medical industry at great speed.
Axiom Manufacturing Services is currently one of the only UK contract electronic manufacturers incorporating PoP technology into its products and it is already proving extremely popular with customers, especially with medical hand-held device manufacturers, who require light units with complex features.
In order to offer a comprehensive and streamlined PoP service to customers, Axiom has invested considerable expertise, time and money into refining PoP processes, materials and equipment, and customise the process for individual OEMs.
The team has worked to characterise the assembly process by experimenting with a variety of different solder pastes and tack fluxes to bond the stacked components together, as well as soldering the base package to the PCB and have settled on a solderpaste printed base package followed by a solderpaste dipped upper package; before reflowing the entire assembly to achieve the finished solder joint connections.
The team also refined the placement method for stacking the components, investing in a state-of-the-art Fuji AIM Surface Mount Technology (SMT) machine which can place PoP components at a rate of eight seconds per device.
By thoroughly inspecting each method for evidence of satisfactory solder joints the team has tailored and perfected the process, investing in a DAGE 7600 XiDAT digital X-Ray inspection system capable of inspecting multi-level BGAs and enabling the most effective quality inspection of final products.
At present the team is working with two stacked components, but as the technology develops further we foresee customers asking for three or four components stacked vertically, something Japanese manufacturers are already developing. Predictions are that the demand for PoP technology will increase as more industries see their products evolve in functionality and reduce in size.
As medical equipment becomes more advanced it could mean that there will be less of a need to go into hospital for minor procedures that can be done in the home by nurses and in many cases by the patients themselves, therefore freeing up hospital beds for more serious illnesses.
The possibilities for more advanced products, including hand held devices, for the medical industry are endless, the new PoP technology will allow the home diagnostic market to grow as well as improving equipment already available in hospitals.
Gareth Beckett is Senior Medical Account Manager at contract electronics manufacturer, Axiom Manufacturing Services, based in Newbridge south Wales.
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