May 31, 2012 -- Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ:MENT), microelectronics design solution provider, collaborated with Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik (AT&S) to implement AT&S Embedded Component Package (ECP) process in Mentor Graphics’ PCB design-through-manufacturing flow.

ECP is a method for embedding bare die and discrete passives into the core of a printed circuit board (PCB), reducing microelectronic component packaging form factor by 30-50%. The technology is being adopted by major silicon vendors in the mobile handset market, said Mark Beesley, COO of Advanced Packaging, AT&S.

With the Mentor Expedition Enterprise flow, designers can implement AT&S’s advanced technology on their PCB cores up to 40% faster and with improved quality, the companies report. Electrical performance, thermal management, miniaturization, cost efficiency, and other elements can be improved.

Embedding active components into the PCB core presents challenges to traditional design flows. AT&S and Mentor Graphics worked to streamline the design workflow for embedded active components, and Mentor provided a complete PCB design-through-manufacturing flow with its integrated Valor manufacturing and assembly software tools.

A design project comprising a complex package module with two embedded flip-chip die and, on top of the substrate, a stacked die along with another flip-chip die, was set up, designed, and sent to manufacturing in 6 days instead of 10. The Mentor/AT&S collaboration also enabled the inclusion of thermal vias using the Mentor FloTHERM tool for thermal analysis.

Mentor Graphics and AT&S will present a User Track session, “Embedding Bare Die and Discrete Passives in an Organic Substrate Package: Design, Assembly and Fabrication Challenges,” at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) 2012 in San Francisco on June 6. To register, go to: www.dac.com. A special 50-minutes session on this topic will also be presented by Charles Pfeil (Mentor Graphics) and Nicolas Faust (AT&S) in the Mentor Graphics booth #1530. To register, go to: www.mentor.com/dac.

AT&S manufactures printed circuit boards in Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.ats.net.

Mentor Graphics Corporation makes electronic hardware and software design solutions. Website: http://www.mentor.com.

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