2.5D and 3D IC Technologies: Application Ready but Cost Limited?
Two schools of thought clearly emerged at last week’s European 3D TSV Summit, which took place on January 20 and 21, 2014 at Minatec campus in Grenoble France. One I addressed in yesterday’s post – about realizing system-level benefits – including cost – by integrating 2.5D and 3D IC technologies....
Lessons Learned From the Trenches of 3D IC Manufacturing for Sensor Applications
The technologies are ready, the target high volume applications for 3D IC manufacturing have been identified, and now it’s about convincing system architects there’s more to gain from designing in 2.5D and 3D ICs than there is to lose. At last week’s European 3D TSV Summit (January 21-22), two European...
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...
The 2014 European 3D TSV Summit: Get Ready for the Domino Effect
I just boarded my flight home after attending the 2014 European 3D TSV Summit. Three days, 332 attendees from 21 countries, 24 presentations, 3 keynote speakers, 2 panel discussions, several face-to-face interviews and lots of side conversation all about 3D TSVS being Application Ready leads to a good deal of...
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...
Automatic Wafer Metrology: Applying X-ray Technology in the 3D Space
The way I see it, it was only a matter of time before Nordson DAGE brought its X-ray technology into the 2.5D and 3D IC space. The company has long been the leader for X-ray inspection in the electronics market and is now positioned to address the growing need for...
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...
Wafer Level Packaging and Stacking take Center Stage at Asia Conferences
I thought I would go to Singapore, attend EPTC (Electronic Packaging Technology Conference 2013) and then take off on my personal vacation to India to attend my 40th high school reunion and 35th college reunion – two weeks tops. It escalated quickly. It ended up being 34 day, 20 city,...
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...
Europe in 3D: Nordson DAGE Sets Out to Measure the Invisible
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...
Launching a Trillion Sensors on a Sea of Through Silicon Vias
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...
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...
3D Wafer Level Packaging: Outlook for 2014
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...
3D IC Implementation: Outlook for 2014
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...
3D TSV Test Approaches: Outlook for 2014
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...
Europe in 3D: The 2014 Winter Tour
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...
3D IC Design: Outlook for 2014
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...
Improving Yield and Reducing Cost of 3D TSVs: Outlook for 2014
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...
3D NAND Flash: Outlook for 2014
What with all the commotion about 3D NAND and the accompanying cyberspace chorus, you would surely be forgiven in thinking that its appearance was close at hand. So, the outlook for 3D NAND progress in 2014 should be fairly rosy then? Well, for the 3D NAND approaches touted so far, I beg...
Tezzaron, Ziptronix, and Invensas Demonstrate Interconnectology in Action
It may have been a coincidence that at last week’s 3D ASIP Conference, Invensas, Tezzaron/Novati, and Ziptronix booths were lined up next to each other in the exhibit hall, but then again maybe it was just Interconnectology in action. News linking Tezzaron/Novati with both Ziptronix and Invensas indicates progress for...
