Rare Earth Mining: The Dark Underside of Sustainability
Apr 20, 2021 · By Francoise von Trapp · 3D In Context, Blogs
3D In Context View all
If a Tree Falls in the Forest, Does it Produce Carbon Dioxide?
While working with a committee on evaluating multiple microelectronics companies for their efforts on sustainability an interesting question arose. Is a company being sustainable if it switches to renewables, but don’t reduce their energy footprint? In an industry where the semiconductor unit growth rate runs about 10% — TSMC builds...
Another Microelectronics Crisis? The Automotive Chip Shortage and Supply Chains
My, what a fix the microelectronics industry has gotten itself into! Three crises happening all at the same time: One threatening the automotive industry, one our electronics supply chain, and the third the United States’ ability to remain competitive in the semiconductor space. There has been a bit written on...
Holy San Francisco Batman, SEMICON West 2021 will be held in December!
This past week SEMI announced that SEMICON West 2o21 will be a hybrid affair with both a live conference and virtual views possible. The show will be held December 7-9, 2021. The usual July show will be canceled this year, but according to Dave Anderson President of SEMI America, will...
Sustainability: We Will Always Have Paris
On a trip home from Dresden, Germany, my plane was delayed by fog. A fellow analyst and I just missed our connection to San Francisco in Munich. Lufthansa was very accommodating and shipped us to Paris where we spent the night, and the next day caught our respective flights to...
Francoise in 3D View all
Drum Roll Please! The Winners of the 2021 3D InCites Awards are…
Like every other awards event in the past year, the 2021 3D InCites Awards Program had to make some adjustments for celebrating its winners. We can’t gather in person at the IMAPS Device Packaging Conference to applaud the winners, catch up with colleagues over a great barbeque, watch the 3D...
3D InCites Mural Project To Seed New DEI Fund
For the last several years, we held the 3D InCites Mural Project, in conjunction with the 3D InCites Awards, in support of STEM Education. This year, we have initiated a new fund in support of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Because DEI is critical to the UN Sustainable Development Goals,...
Announcing the Finalists of the 2021 3D InCItes Sustainability Award and SemiSister Award
As part of our annual 3D InCites Awards program, we decided this year to turn the spotlight on two areas that we think are critical for the future of society: sustainable semiconductor manufacturing and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). These topics are so important that we chose to have the...
The Digital Transformation is Here, and Semiconductors are Its Lifeblood
After a year living in the shadow of COVID 19, the speakers at the Technology Unites Global Summit Executive Forum have some positive news to share about its impact on the semiconductor industry and vice-versa. The verdict is unanimous: COVID 19 catapulted the digital transformation into reality, which means explosive...
From Different Dimensions View all
Fan-Out Panel-Level Packaging Takes Off
Fan out (FO) packaging is one of the key growth segments in advanced packaging, with high adoption rates and strong technology advantages offering a strong pathway moving forward to support industry roadmaps. The nature of reconstituted substrates is now enabling fan-out panel-level packaging. Fan out packaging is no longer limited...
Rising from the Ashes: StratEdge Corporation’s Recent Rocky History
Since its founding in 1992, StratEdge Corporation has moved its factory a couple of times. Its recent move from Sorrento Mesa, in San Diego, to nearby Santee, California, was not by choice. The president of StratEdge, Tim Going, received a most unpleasant call while on a business trip in November...
Doing Business in China: A European Company’s Perspective
China consumes more than 50% of all semiconductors annually. However, with a rapidly growing consumer market, domestic Chinese manufacturers can meet only around 30% of their own demand. A statistical report from China Electronic Production Equipment Industry Association (CEPEA) shows that the domestic market self-sufficiency rate of integrated circuit equipment...
The Big Squeeze – Why OSATs Need to Work Smarter
Analysts are projecting strong growth in advanced packaging, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2026 approaching 7% across the segment; much higher for certain high-end technologies, including 3D stacking, embedded die, and fan-out. Outsourced assembly and test (OSAT) firms, which package finished die manufactured by independent device manufacturers...
Packaging IFTLE View all
IFTLE 481: A BRIDG to Somewhere
It was exactly two years ago that IFTLE first discussed the entity known as BRIDG and how it planned to be a “boutique microelectronics fabrication facility” that would be able to prototype 2.5/3D devices for the U. S. government and the microelectronics community. Later in the year, BRIDG announced that...
IFTLE 480 : Wafer Thinning and Nano TSVs; Making Money on the Leading Edge
Wafer Thinning and Nano TSVs In the last few years, Ann Jourdain of IMEC and co-workers have described silicon device stacking through extreme silicon thinning technology. Recently Jourdan and Dave Thomas of SPTS reviewed this technology for the Jan/Feb issue of Chip Scale Review. The technology is interesting enough that...
IFTLE 479: ABF Substrate Shortages; Consolidation Continues
This past fall, our packaging industry saw significant shortages of packaging substrates made from Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF). Let’s take a closer look. Ajinomoto is not your typical electronics materials company. Its main product lines are food seasonings, amino acids, and pharma products. The company entered the electronic materials industry...
IFTLE 478: Chiplet Nomenclature; EV Group/ASM Support D2W Hybrid Bonding
On Definitions and Buzzwords Long-time readers of IFTLE know that I’m sensitive about nomenclature and buzzwords. For instance: “nanotechnology” and “internet of things” are buzz words that are being used way too loosely and have little meaning. I’m OK with 2.5D because I was there when it was first uttered...
SemiSisters View all
2021 3D InCites DEI Fundraiser a Success; Thank You Sponsors
We took our annual mural project online this year! Illustrator Ronna Encarnacion created this original watercolor to reflect the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in creating sustainability. Proceeds from the project will be used to seed the 3D InCites DEI Fund to support technology businesses owned by women and...
How is COVID 19 Impacting the Semiconductor Industry’s Diversity and Inclusion Efforts?
A headline on CNN Business caught my eye last night: Working mothers are quitting to take care of their kids, and the US job market may never be the same. I started reading and went down a rabbit hole of related articles that revealed a few things: Unlike the recession...
SemiSister Success Story: A Woman on the Edge of 3D Technology
Severine Cheramy has devoted her career to developing 3D integration technologies and bringing them to market. She was the first person to show me what a TSV wafer looked like when I visited CEA-Leti’s cleanroom in 2009 during my Tour de France in 3D. At the time, she was a...
Diversity, Parity, Prosperity: Perspective of an Industry Veteran
“Don’t surround yourself with yourself …” Yes, from I’ve Seen All Good People. “At Japan’s Most Elite University, Just 1 in 5 Students Is a Woman.” The New York Times, 08 December 2019 “The semiconductor industry isn’t known as a standout example of diversity and inclusion. But that’s changing.” Jane...
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IFTLE 477: Is the World Dependent on Taiwan for Chips? SMIC Focus on Packaging
The World is Dangerously Dependent on Taiwan for Chips The Taipai Times recently published this position paper (written by reporters...
Technology Unites Global Summit: My Networking Experience
I spent the better part of each morning this week (February 15-19) in our virtual booth at SEMI’s Technology Unites...
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COVID-19 hit the world in early 2020 with very little warning. The semiconductor industry was poised for recovery, and all...
IFTLE 476: 2020 3D Test Workshop – IMEC Co-Packaged Optics & Intel Foveros Testing
November 2020 saw the 7th IEEE International Workshop on Testing 3D, Chiplet-Based, and Stacked ICs (which IFTLE has been calling...
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IFTLE 475: EPTC 2020: IME on Hybrid Bonding Challenges; Latest on Intel
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The Future is Heterogeneous Integration
2020 proved to us that our world is wholly unpredictable. As the year began with optimism for a new decade...
2020 Hindsight and 2021 Insight: Edge Computing, 5G, Trade Wars and COVID-19
2020 was a roller coaster of a year from both a forecasting perspective and trying to keep up with shipments....
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For us at Siemens Digital Industries Software, COVID -19 brought the closure of all our offices and the beginning of...
News Analysis: What’s Really Going on Inside Intel?
Intel has been in the news for the first weeks of 2021. While this is not unusual due to CES...
IFTLE 474: EPTC 2020 Highlights; TSMC Packaging in Japan
The annual IEEE Electronics Packaging Technology Conference (EPTC 2020 – Asia’s equivalent to the ECTC) took place virtually in December,...
What the Pandemic Brought to Me
In the middle of December 2020, Germany went into its second lockdown. It seemed that people were more careless compared...
The 5G Rollout: An Industry in Transition
As predicted, 2020 will go down as the year 5G hit the big time. But it got off to a...
IFTLE 473: More on Reshoring Microelectronics; A Closer Look at AIM Photonics
More on Reshoring Microelectronics By now everyone is aware that the US government, triggered by the pandemic, is in the...
Navigating COVID-19 in a Demanding Semiconductor Market
As many of you will agree, 2019 was a very tough year for the semiconductor industry but with a strong...
The Importance of Sustainability in Semiconductor Manufacturing
Sustainability is one of today’s hottest topics in the news, and how to improve sustainability efforts is discussed at companies...
IFTLE 472: Qorvo wins SHIP RF Packaging Program; SEMI Working on PLP Standards
Qorvo Begins SHIP RF Packaging Program IFTLE has previously discussed the US State-of-the-art Heterogeneous Packaging and Prototyping (SHIPS) program (see...
Closing Out 2020 at the MEPTEC Holiday Hangout
After nine months of Zooming into all the virtual events, I can’t wait for things to go live again. In...