Is GlobalFoundries looking for an exit or simply shedding parts of the company that do not fit its new focus? Back in IFTLE 406 we started discussing the persistent rumors that GlobalFoundries might be “chopped up on the auction block and its businesses sold to specialty foundries that want to supply in those specific areas.” There have been rumors that Abu Dabi Investment Corp. (ADIC), the ... »
Requirements for interconnect pitches of 20µm and below is expected to be the norm in the future. Since typical solder bump technology is not expected to be able to meet those requirements, many companies have been examining Cu-to-Cu direct bonding. Cu-to-Cu bonding can be achieved through one of two ways: Cu-to-Cu thermal compression bonding low-temperature direct bond interconnect, commonly ref... »
As IFTLE has been predicting for many years, the baton is once again being passed. In the early days of advanced microelectronics, packaging breakthroughs were developed by integrated device manufacturers like IBM, DEC, NEC, Fujitsu, etc. In the early 2000s, this baton was passed to the OSATS like Amkor, ASE, SPIL, and STATSChipPAC. As it became more obvious that advanced packaging was going wafer... »
IFTLE has been saying for a few years that the decades-long scenario of moving from one node to the next was, for most if not all, dead and, that we had to keep our eyes open for what the next IC technology would be, because as we all know packaging only exists to protect and assist chips function. Based on the 2019 Samsung Foundry Forum, which took place this May in Santa Clara, we certainly need... »
Substrate-like PCBs (SLP) is a term describing a high-density printed circuit board (PCB) that has feature sizes close to that of an IC substrate. The main difference between a PCB and an IC substrate is the feature sizes, especially line and space (L/S). SLP requires line width/line spacing equal to or less than 30/30 mm, which allows for reducing the size of the main board, thus making space for... »
In the past few weeks, a reader sent a message to IFTLE titled “Time to bring back Lester the Lightbulb” with a link to a story in the Detroit News. Way back in Aug of 2011, I was covering the forced introduction of light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs into the US consumer market. Although incandescent light bulbs have nothing to do with advanced heterogeneous integration packaging, the newe... »
As packaging practitioners/experts themselves, regular readers know that IFTLE is always on the lookout for the latest applications and the latest chips going into those applications because all those chips will have to be packaged. However, IFTLE has previously warned the reader to beware of technology hype, which appears to be increasing exponentially throughout the decades that I have lived. As... »
At the recent IMAPS Device Packaging Conference in Fountain Hills, AZ. Kyung Suk (Dan) Oh, Package Development VP at Samsung, discussed “Electronics Packaging Technologies for the 4th Industrial Revolution” Oh explained that Samsung sees today’s technology paradigm shift as going “beyond Moore” by a convergence of system integration/packaging and software. Based on the slide below, Oh sa... »
At the recent IMAPS Device Packaging Conference, March 5-7, 2019 in Fountain Hills AZ, Benedetto Vigna, president of the ST Micro Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group, discussed the company’s presence in the sensor technology market. The vast assortment of sensor and actuator functions have recently been defined by Yole Developpement as shown in Figure 1. 2018 IHS market data shows >50% of the ... »
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a wide bandgap (WBG) material that has advantages when compared to silicon (Figure 1). For the same die size and thickness, WBG devices provide higher breakdown voltage, current, operating temperature, and switching speed; and lower switching loss over Si devices. ST Microelectronics (ST Micro) started working with SiC in 1996, producing its first SiC diodes in 2004. I... »
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