The semiconductor devices and components for thinning laptops

Dell has launched a new thin laptop branded has adamo with total thickness of 1.64 cm. This slim laptop might be the thinnest in comparison to other laptop brands. But when we compare to the thickness of smart phones that also hold display, battery, keyboard, camera module and external memory card, 1.64 cm is no that great achievement.

The two big obstacles to reduce the thickness of laptop are disk drive and battery. With thin solid-state drive replacing magnetic drive, disk drive will clear its thickness hurdle. Solid-state drives can be even reduced to a thickness of <2mm.

Battery size reduction is a challenge, since its a battery pack the thickness can be reduced to some extent by rearranging the cells inside the pack so that the width and breadth can be grown with volume remaining same.

What about the semiconductors and other components?

It can be said, there is no silicon vendor for laptop market not addressing the thickness issue. In fact there are no new semiconductor devices released for mobile and portable electronics market, without thinness specialization. From MOSFET to processor, the thin profile is selling strength. These devices just got to pop up not greater than 1 mm above the PCB to be selected for adamo type of laptops. The latest power devices like MOSFETS come in the thickness range of 0.7 mm.
The passive components such as capacitor and other electromechanical components are not matching to the thickness offered by their silicon companions. They project 0.5 mm to 1mm higher than semiconductor devices. It's opportunity for passive component manufacturers to innovate.

The trend in thinning the laptop may end up the laptop getting as thin as hardbound of a book, just few mm. So is the challenge for component vendors to reduce their component thickness further down.

But does the market accept the thin laptops? We got wait and see. It looks to be more of a fashion driven rather than an advantage.