For us at Siemens Digital Industries Software, COVID -19 brought the closure of all our offices and the beginning of learning how to work, collaborate, and do business virtually. The interaction with customers and prospects typically happens on a very personal level, with sales and technical account executives traveling to customer locations for meetings, demonstrations, evaluations, seminars, etc. Luckily Siemens was already planning to roll out Microsoft Teams, which was accelerated due to the pandemic. For many, it took some time to master and acclimate to the platform, but we were surprised how well customers adapted to the transition to virtual interaction when dealing with their EDA technology supplier. With our field teams no longer flying and/or driving to visit customers, they had more time for quality customer interactions using new multimedia communications tools like TEAMs. Siemens does not expect that pre-COVID-19 activities will fully resume until a proven vaccine is available, and even then, the amount of travel to meet customer face-to-face will be reduced as doing business using virtual technologies has proven to be, in some cases, more effective, especially from a cost perspective. For us, the financial year ended on September 30th and despite the enormous burden and impact of the pandemic turned out to be a year of exceptional bookings and revenue performance.So, as we look forward to 2021 our first thought and hope is it will bring a vaccine and an end to this deadly pandemic so we can try to get back to some semblance of normal. On the technology side, 2020 saw a significant surge in companies designing heterogeneous 2.5/3D devices and the discovery that their legacy organic BGA focused design tools were running out of steam.In 2021, we expect to see more fan-out-wafer-level package (FOWLP) designs turning to panel-based manufacture with companies like Deca, ASE, Nepes, and PTI leading the charge.On the performance side of packaging, we expect to see more non-silicon-based interposer like designs emerging as the pressure to reduce costs while increasing device performance and yield increases. All of this will require greater adoption of early and comprehensive prototyping/planning with co-optimization, often referred to as STCO. With more silicon chiplets and substrates being integrated together as a single 3D package, the assembly verification (DRC/LVS) challenge of such designs will grow almost exponentially, driving more change and the need to adopt advanced technologies and methodologies.While pure silicon scaling has not stopped, the era of huge monolithic CMOS devices being the sole driver of More than Moore is very close to ending being superseded by heterogeneous/homogeneous 2.5/3D IC package.In summary, the era of the dinosaur is ending, long live the era of the mammals…… ~ Keith Felton and Kevin Rinebold
Keith Felton is the Marketing Manager for the Xpedition IC Packaging solutions at Siemens, driving the strategy and direction for multi-substrate prototyping, design, and verification solution for high-density advanced packages. He has worked extensively in the area of IC Package design since the late 1980s. In the early 2000s, Keith drove the launch of the industry’s first dedicated system-in-package design solution. In 2017 he led a team that launched Mentor’s OSAT Alliance program. Prior to Siemens, Keith was Group Director of Product Marketing at Cadence Design Systems.
Kevin Rinebold is the Technology Manager for Advanced Packaging Solutions at Siemens. He has 30 years of experience in defining, developing, and supporting advanced packaging and system planning solutions for the semiconductor and systems markets. He has defined and pioneered some of the earliest solutions for IC-PKG-PCB co-design. Prior to joining Siemens, Kevin was Product Manager for IC packaging and co-design products at Cadence. He’s held similar positions at Sigrity, Synopsys, and Xynetix.
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Siemens Digital Industries Software
Siemens Digital Industries Software is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions…
Keith Felton is the Marketing Manager for the Xpedition IC Packaging solutions at Siemens, driving the strategy and direction for multi-substrate prototyping, design, and verification solution for high-density advanced packages. He has worked extensively in the area of IC Package design since the late 1980s. In the early 2000s, Keith drove the launch of the industry’s first dedicated system-in-package design solution. In 2017 he led a team that launched Mentor’s OSAT Alliance program. Prior to Siemens, Keith was Group Director of Product Marketing at Cadence Design Systems.
Kevin Rinebold is the Technology Manager for Advanced Packaging Solutions at Siemens. He has 30 years of experience in defining, developing, and supporting advanced packaging and system planning solutions for the semiconductor and systems markets. He has defined and pioneered some of the earliest solutions for IC-PKG-PCB co-design. Prior to joining Siemens, Kevin was Product Manager for IC packaging and co-design products at Cadence. He’s held similar positions at Sigrity, Synopsys, and Xynetix.
