4. Boxes

We've chosen to present the main assembly stages and interconnection supports before turning to packages, which remain the usual means of encapsulating integrated circuits. Historically, a package contains only one integrated circuit chip. However, it is becoming increasingly common to encapsulate several integrated circuits, as well as passive components (capacitors, resistors, etc.) to achieve a complete function, and to give this assembly the form of a package. Moreover, the emergence of a new family of packages never, or only very gradually, replaces existing packages, but rather contributes to the growth of the microelectronics market; this is the case, for example, of insertion packages, the first type of package to be developed (DIP packages in figure