After so many years covering 3D technologies, I love finding a new angle to write about. Yesterday’s visit to Fraunhofer EMFT in Munich provided just that. Instead of focusing on 3D IC processes, we talked about 3D systems integration and the e-BRAINS project. And rather than discussing the well-worn topic of mobile applications, we talked about other markets that stand to benefit from 3D hetero... »
What better place for the Queen of 3D to start out her Europe in 3D tour than a late lunch at the Crown Inn, in Colchester, Essex UK? I arrived in London on Monday afternoon, January 12, and was greeted by 3D InCites’ own Nick Richardson, business development manager (and unofficial court jester). We climbed aboard the chariot (aka Citroen Picasso) and headed to Colchester, UK to get our bearing... »
To the readers of 3D InCites: Happy New Year! I hope your 2014 will be a healthy and prosperous one for you and for your families, and I hope you will continue following 3D InCites (and maybe even be contributing yourselves) as the year progresses. Now that the Internet of Things (IoT) technology meme is in the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” phase of the Gartner Hype Cycle Curve, and with the... »
Major SoC vendors, like Intel and IBM, started development work on 3D ICs more than a decade ago, but so far, economics have discouraged them from starting volume production. Ho-Ming Tong, CTO, ASE, and his team realized a few years ago that vertical stacking of logic die and/or heterogeneous functions did (and still do) require major engineering efforts and significant business model changes befo... »
In 2013, SPTS equipment sales into the advanced packaging market grew by 75%. Some of this was due to a resurgence in 3D wafer level packaging (3D WLP); the first-generation 3D that started with CMOS image sensors in the middle of the last decade. This year’s growth was predominantly due to the demand for fingerprint sensors first seen in the iPhone 5S; next to be used in competing phones an... »
Mobile/smart devices will continue to drive innovation and volumes in the semiconductor industry in 2014. The much discussed “Internet of Things” is a vision for the next growth cycle, and while we see this vision eventually coming true, the industry is very early in the cycle. It will take a number of years for IoT to take over the growth story from mobile consumer devices. In the meantime, 3... »
Metrology, process control, and electrical test are key enablers for the success of the semiconductor industry. 3D integration using TSVs offers new challenges in this area that need solutions. There seems to be industry consensus that it is extremely difficult to perform a wafer-level test that ensures the complete functionality of the TSVs. There are ideas about how to perform 3D TSV test with ... »
This winter, I’ve been invited to moderate panels at two 3D industry events. The first will be at the European TSV Summit, which takes place January 22-23, 2014 in Grenoble, and the second is during the DATE 2014 3D Integration Workshop, March 28, 2014 as part of DATE 2014, which takes place this year in Dresden. It got me thinking, what better time to visit European companies working on 2.5D an... »
To date we at Mentor Graphics have seen a handful of 3D IC design releases, and even more customer evaluations. However, the predominant driver seems to be a desire to understand the space in case their company elects to move into the space. In general, the perception seems to be that the costs for the current offerings are higher than expected. Moreover, many companies are still trying to determi... »
At Alchimer, we believe that as it becomes technically more difficult to shrink to further nodes, companies will turn to 3D technologies to achieve the performance requirements of next-generation computing needs. We expect that to happen at 7nm node, when 3D will be cost competitive with scaling. In 2014, we expect to see the industry begin ramping to 3D, while at the same time, work continues to ... »
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