Since the beginning, all IC packages have been designed to perform the basic tasks of interconnecting and protecting the semiconductor die and making it useful for interconnection at the next level. Electronic packaging technology has diversified explosively since the first ICs were produced, providing evolutionary and sometimes revolutionary advantages with each new development. By way of example, when ICs first hit the market, there were fundamentally just two package types, the flatpack structure of Texas Instruments and the dual-in-line (DIP) structure of Fairchild, the two pioneering companies of integrated circuit technology (though Fairchild did use TO can packaging for some if the company’s very earliest ICs). 

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