Most demand for these shrinking parts comes from the personal appliance market, where more functions are being placed in smaller spaces. The advantages to using a chip scale package over DCA are easier handling, more protection for the chip and simpler board assembly. Also, with DCA, packaging is not avoided, it is simply made part of board assembly. 3 Table 1 lists them according to general type. Flash memory has adopted chip scale packaging fastest, while other memory and logic ICs have been going into CSPs as well.
Smart cards provide another application for CSPs.
Though COB techniques are used typically, CSPs are becoming small enough for smart cards. Also, it is possible to package an IC that cannot be taken apart without destroying the chip. This adds security against reverse engineering of a lost or stolen card. Wafer level packaging Three of the four general CSP types are miniature forms of more conventional packages. Wafer level packaging is different, because most, if not all, packaging is done before device singulation or wafer saw.