If you’re new to the advanced packaging industry, it may have crossed your mind to invest in a professional development course. IMAPS, or the International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society, offers exactly that. Their packaging-specific, IMAPS Academy courses are aimed at promoting a stronger understanding of key parts of the process.
IMAPS was kind enough to provide me with access to a few of their courses in exchange for this article review. Overall, I completed five courses, including:
- Introduction to Packaging
- Introduction to Chip Packaging
- Introduction to Wire Bonding
- Introduction to Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging
- The Evolution of Flip Chip Technology
Before we get too deep into this, I’ll just say that after finishing these courses, I feel like I could build a package myself. Well, maybe not; but I did learn a lot from each one. Outside of the complimentary Introduction to Chip Packaging course, each 2-hour course is $229 for non-IMAPS members, $169 for members, and $49 for students – a worthwhile investment depending on your specific needs.
In this article, I’ll explain who should take which courses and provide a high-level overview of what I learned in each one. Whether you’re a sales, marketing, or communications person for a packaging company, an engineer or engineering student, or an aspiring technical writer and you’re wondering if IMAPS Academy is right for you, keep reading to find out.
IMAPS Academy Format
Each course is split into four chapters, and each chapter consists of one, 30-minute video.
That’s four, 30-minute videos equaling two hours per course. Personally, I found myself stopping frequently to take notes and process the information, so if that sounds like something you’d do too, you may need to allocate a bit more time to go through each chapter.
Upon completing a chapter, you’ll be prompted to take a 4-6 question multiple choice quiz that you’ll need to pass to move onto the next chapter. In general, I found each quiz to be pretty straightforward based on the video content, but don’t worry if you don’t pass the quiz the first time. You get multiple attempts to complete each quiz.
Also, once you complete all four chapters, you can download a course completion certificate. I thought that was a nice touch, and it’s great to add to your LinkedIn profile to boost your credibility.
Finally, each course is taught by either one or two working industry professionals, so you’ll be learning from real leaders in the advanced packaging field. All of the courses are PowerPoint style, and each instructor will take you through their respective slideshows.
Now that you know what to expect, let’s dive into the courses!
Introduction to Packaging
As mentioned, this is the complimentary introductory course. Because this is only the intro course, it doesn’t follow the format I shared above. Instead, it’s an 11 minute overview that touches on what a package is and why they’re important, and it highlights a few different types of packages and the features that define them.
I’d recommend this course to anyone remotely interested in packaging. It’s 11 minutes long and it’s free, so you really have nothing to lose. Even for such a short course, I think it does a great job providing a foundational level of understanding. Before buying any of the courses, I think it’s worth completing the introduction. Even if you’re a bit further along in your packaging knowledge, it’s still helpful just to get a feel for the course style.
Introduction to Chip Packaging
If you’re brand new to packaging, you’ll likely want to start with the Introduction to Chip Packaging course.
The biggest pro about this course is that it provides a ton of introductory information in an organized format. In this course, you’ll learn how companies select their packages, benefits and drawbacks of some popular package options, material considerations for wire bonding, package reliability considerations, basics of miniaturization, an overview of wafer level packaging, common assembly processes, and more.
Although this course provides a nice overview of packaging, I wish it included a video dedicated solely to basic package structures. For example, the instructor showed the below structural diagram of a flip chip in chapter 1 (see figure 1). While some students may already understand what these components are, I think it would’ve been helpful to newcomers to explain what the substrate does, what the solder balls do, and the function of the underfill before getting into the specifics of each component.
The instructor does a great job of explaining some of these things later on in the course, but you may have to do some legwork to paint the full picture depending on your level of previous knowledge. Even though the course could work for some beginners, I think it’s best suited for people who already have a baseline understanding of packaging terms and components. The course contains a fair bit of acronyms and industry terminology, so you may find yourself pausing the video to look up key terms.
Introduction to Wire Bonding
Out of all the IMAPS Academy courses I completed, this one was the most technical by far. I’ll be honest, a lot of this material went right over my head.
If you’re an engineer or engineering student, you’ll probably enjoy this one. If you’re working in sales or communications for a packaging company, and you’re doing IMAPS Academy to increase your general knowledge, I would sit this one out. I found this course to be interesting overall, but I don’t think it’s necessary if you’re just trying to learn this process at a high-level.
If you want to learn about the wire bonding process thoroughly, then this course is for you. It goes into great detail on how a wire bond is formed, highlighting both ball bonding and wedge bonding. It also discusses the testing processes for evaluating the quality of a wire bond, provides solutions for optimizing the bonds, and even goes into detail on the physics of wire bonding. Lastly, it addresses wire material selection and how to identify contaminated bonds.
Overall, this course is extremely comprehensive. It’s great for anyone interested in the technical intricacies of the wire bonding process.
Introduction to Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging
In my opinion, this was the most beginner friendly of all of the courses I completed. The instructor was great at explaining industry terminology and acronyms, and I found it to be easy to understand as a newer person to the industry. I felt like it did an excellent job taking complex concepts and simplifying them.
The FOWLP course includes an introductory overview chapter, as well as dedicated chapters that address the materials, equipment, and technical challenges surrounding FOWLP. Personally, I loved this clear-cut format, and it made the course even more digestible. Even though the course focuses on challenges, it also shares advantages and solutions for the common roadblocks associated with FOWLP.
Although it might be a bit too basic for someone already working as an engineer, it would be great for students, or for someone in a marketing or communications role working for a company that handles FOWLP. If this is your first exposure to fan-out, or if you would like a comprehensive review, I would definitely recommend taking this course.
The Evolution of Flip Chip Technology
Like the FOWLP course, I also found this one to be reasonably beginner-friendly. At this point, I may have been a bit biased since this was the last course I completed, but I think it was a great overview nonetheless.
As the industry is forced to pack more compute power in less space than ever before, flip chip packages are emerging as a solution for achieving this. The course addresses what a flip chip is, the benefits of this package type, different types of flip chips, assembly processes, market applications, types of interconnect technologies, and more. I think out of all the courses I took, this one strikes the best balance between being beginner-friendly while remaining reasonably informative for more advanced course-takers.
I think overall, there’s something for everyone to learn in this course. However, if you’re brand new to the industry, I would still recommend starting with the Introduction to Packaging and Introduction to Chip Packaging courses before buying this one.
Final Thoughts
It’s impossible to evaluate IMAPS Academy as a whole, because each course is taught by different instructors who each have their own approach. Some courses are more beginner-friendly than others, but each course is packed with valuable information, and I found all of them to be extremely informative.
When I was taking these courses, I discovered it was best to stick to one course video per day. There were a few times I tried to do more than one video, but as a beginner myself, I needed time to digest the content. If you have more pre-existing packaging knowledge than I had, you might be able to absorb more than one video at a time.
Let us know in the comments – are there any IMAPS Academy courses you’re interested in taking? To learn more or to purchase the courses, visit the IMAPS Academy website.
