3D Topics

Making Progress with 3D IC Design and Test

Thank you, Ann Steffora Mutschler (Semiconductor Engineering) for getting to the bottom of the difference of EDA tools for  2.5D and 3D IC design and test, and providing such a clear explanation in your post, “Evolution vs. Revolution”. In this 2-part post, Mutschler explores the EDA vendor arguments that “tool...

Triple I Prevails at EV Group

Invent, Innovate, Implement continues to be the mantra at EV Group, supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets. In visits I’ve made to EVG’s Schaerding, Austria world headquarters over the years, it’s clear that this Triple I approach is working for the company, which...

The 411 on CEA Leti’s Interposer Roadmap

When is an active die not an active die? When it’s an active interposer, of course! Ever since Nicolas Sillon, former head of CEA Leti’s 3D Integration program, first talked about the research institutes’ work with interposer technology for 3D integration, the term “active interposer” has sparked controversy and begged for definition....

Book Review: Design and Modeling for 3D ICs and Interposers

For almost 50 years the semiconductor industry has practiced continued shrinking of transistor feature sizes and has been able to pack, with every new process generation, more functionality, at lower cost, onto a single piece of silicon in one IC package. However, physical limits to shrinking and rapidly increasing cost...

TSVs for MEMS vs. TSVs for 3D ICS

The 2013 European 3D TSV Summit (January 20-22, Grenoble, France) kicked off with a pre-conference symposium on 3D TSVs for MEMS applications. My initial thought after attending, was that I’m not sure the MEMS people realize this, but some of us who don’t work in the MEMS market but DO...

Europe in 3D: The EV Group Story Continues…

Rarely do I have the opportunity to visit a company two times and find something new to write about, never mind three. But as always, EV Group didn’t disappoint for my visit Friday (January 17, 2014) to see the company’s latest additions, both to the physical plant and to the product...

Europe in 3D: The Brains behind e-BRAINS

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...

READY – AIM – FIRE! Predictions for 2.5D ICs in 2014

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...