Wafers, Circuits and Chip Shots

National Semiconductor Celebrated 50 Years of Industry Leadership and Launched Sixth Decade Focused on Energy

May 27, 2009 - Today, National Semiconductor Corp. is celebrating its 50th anniversary. National’s story is one intricately woven into the history of the high-tech industry. When the company was founded, computers were the size of buildings, telephones were wired to walls, televisions were boxes filled with tubes and humans had not yet left the earth’s atmosphere. National’s many technological innovations have shaped the industry and left their mark on the world.

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National Semiconductor Introduces Six PowerWise Energy-Efficient Subsystem Reference Designs

November 10, 2008 - Six new PowerWise® reference designs from National Semiconductor empower design engineers to speed through the design process, delivering products that consume less power, extend battery life and generate less heat. The designs address a wide range of applications including portable, lighting, solar, industrial, medical, communications infrastructure, and test and measurement.

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National Semiconductor Launches New Generation of Ultra-Miniature, High Pin-Count Integrated Circuit Packages

January 9, 2006 - Continuing decades of chip packaging leadership, National introduced the micro SMDxt (micro Surface Mount Device extended technology) chip package. The new package  enables high-reliability products with bump counts of 42 to 100 bumps at a 0.5 mm pitch without underfill. National products in micro SMDxt packages enable designers to create more complex devices with advanced features and pack them into a smaller space.

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National Semiconductor Gets the Lead Out

April 7, 2004 - Environmentally friendly: In 2000, National began an intensive multi-step program to reduce and eliminate lead in its semiconductor packages. Today, (mid-2004) approximately 90 percent of National’s portfolio of 15,000 analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits is available in lead-free package types. By year-end, National will offer lead-free options for its complete line of integrated circuit (IC) products.The company is also significantly reducing bromine and antimony-based flame-retardants in an industry-leading effort to make more environmentally neutral electronic components.

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Photo micrography captures intricate circuit lines hundred of times smaller than a human hair.

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Photo micrography captures intricate circuit lines hundred of smaller than a human hair.

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National Semiconductor manufactures more than 1 billion chips a year. They're used in everything from computers and phones to autos and planes.

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National Semiconductor chips are used in imaging devices such as fax machines, printers, scanners and copiers. 

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National's analog heritage has given it a unique advantage in building systems on a chip (analog chip shown).

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National gained prominence in the semiconductor industry for its expertise at manufacturing high-performance analog chips in volume (sample here).

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A stylized wafer shows the National worldmark.

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Photo micrography captures intricate circuit lines hundred of times smaller than a human hair.

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National Semiconductor's new micro SMD packaging enable dramatically smaller printed-circuit boards. Because micro SMD packages are smaller than chip capacitors, they look like mere dots on the smaller board.

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National Semiconductor has always been the leader in introducing miniature semiconductor packaging. Until the release of the micro SMD package, a semiconductor device's die has always been much smaller than its package. With micro SMD, packaging can get no smaller because "The die IS the package!"

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In 1999, National Semiconductor introduced the world's smallest dual op amp, the LMC6035. Now a portfolio of products are available in this package -- a package so small that several devices fit on the head of a pushpin with room to spare.

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In 1999, National Semiconductor introduced the world's smallest dual op amp, the LMC6035. Now a portfolio of products are available in this package -- a package so small that several devices fit on the head of a pushpin with room to spare.

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This electron-microscope view of a National Semiconductor chip-scale micro SMD device shows how precisely placed and perfectly spherical the solder bumps are. The magnification is 60X and the new device measures 1.45 mm square by 0.90 mm high. The device's footprint is 20% of the footprint of a comparable device packaged in an MSOP-8 package.

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National Semiconductor's four-, five-, and eight-bump micro SMD packages comply with a JEDEC standard. The chip-scale packages' solder-bump pitch is 0.5 mm. A micro SMD device's footprint is between 50% and 85% smaller than the footprint of the same device in conventional packaging.

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National Semiconductor's four-, five-, and eight-bump micro SMD packages comply with a JEDEC standard. The chip-scale packages' solder-bump pitch is 0.5 mm. A micro SMD device's footprint is between 50% and 85% smaller than the footprint of the same device in conventional packaging.

Press Photo: TIF (6.7MB)   JPG (0.5MB)