Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging (“FO-WLP”) processes are well-known within the semiconductor industry for producing microelectronic packages having peripheral fan-out areas, which enlarge the surface area of the package frontside over which the contact array is formed. In an example of an FO-WLP packaging approach, a pick-and-place tool is used to position an array of semiconductor die within the central opening of a taped mold frame. An encapsulant is then dispensed into the mold frame and over the array of semiconductor die. The encapsulant is thermally cured to produce a molded panel in which the array of semiconductor die is embedded, and the taped mold frame is removed to reveal the frontside of the molded panel through which the semiconductor die are exposed. After backside grinding and additional curing of the panel, a carrier is attached to the panel backside to allow a number of build-up layers or Redistribution Layers (“RDL layers”), as well as a Ball Grid Array (“BGA”) or other contact array, to be formed over the panel frontside and the die exposed therethrough. The RDL layers include successively-deposited dielectric layers in which a number of metal traces and plugs are formed to provide electrically-conductive paths between the bond pads of the embedded die and the overlying BGA. Finally, the molded panel is singulated to yield a number of microelectronic packages each containing a different encapsulated semiconductor die.
For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figures illustrate the general manner of construction, and descriptions and details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the exemplary and non-limiting embodiments of the invention described in the subsequent Detailed Description. It should further be understood that features or elements appearing in the accompanying figures are not necessarily drawn to scale unless otherwise stated. For example, the dimensions of certain elements or regions in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements or regions to improve understanding of embodiments of the invention.