New generation microcontrollers for automotive applications require a huge number of I/Os, dealing with various sensor and actuator signals derived from the external world.
In case of the first TriCore™ based 32-Bit microcontroller this leads to approximately 270 I/Os for signal processing. Adding the power supply lines and thermal balls, the overall number of required interconnects grows far over 300.
To outperform standard microcontroller packages, e.g. QFPs, the limitations in terms of package size and maximum number of interconnects have to be improved. Main goal is to adapt the component quality to the high level reliability standard, which is the basis of an implementation into automotive parts.
Current tests with a P-BGA standard package show interesting results for the board level reliability, when design and test parameters are changed only slightly.