Francoise von Trapp (aka the Queen of 3D) has been following and reporting on the progress of 3D integration technologies since 2009. Francoise in 3D provides a high-level perspective of 3D industry events, offers executive viewpoints, and focuses on process and manufacturing aspects of 3D integration.
Tezzaron, Novati and 3D ICs: They’re doing it in the USA
While everyone’s waiting for the big memory houses like Micron and Samsung, and IDMS and foundries like IBM and TSMC to announce they are ramping to high volume manufacturing (HVM) with 3D ICs, deep in the heart of Texas, it’s already happening in low volumes for custom applications thanks to...
Will the Market Bear the Plethora of Mobile Devices? A Reader Survey
Have you noticed that it’s not even Halloween and the stores are already setting up their Christmas sections? Seems to happen earlier and earlier every year. It’s no coincidence that Apple and Microsoft timed their latest product launches in time to ride that wave. Since tablets and smartphones have been...
Nostalgia Trip
Is today the anniversary of something and I missed the memo? Because in less than 5 minutes of surfing, I’ve scrolled by several different posts that step back in history to reminisce about electronic innovations like microwave ovens and PCs that weren’t much more than glorified typewriters and look how...
Catching up with imec’s Eric Beyne
Eric Beyne (imec) and I go way back. He’s the Scientific Director of Advanced Packaging Technologies at imec, and ever since my Advanced Packaging days, he’s been a valuable resource whenever I have technology questions about any part of the spectrum of 3D integration technologies. Basically, I can count on...
A Plethora of 3D Memories
Because 3D Memory really stands out as an industry apart from 3D ICs, I’ve been collecting some interesting articles over the past few weeks, with the intention of bringing 3D InCites a curated update. Here it is. In the wake of JEDEC’s announcement that it had released its specification for...
How do you use your mobile devices?
Over the summer, we became a 3 iPad household; my daughters because they were headed off to college and iPads are suddenly the must-have item for note-taking and homework doing; and me because I decided I was really tired of schlepping a laptop with an old battery to conferences, searching...
The devil we know vs. the devil we don’t know
I keep reading about the various ways chip designers can achieve the performance/power benefits required for next generation mobile devices, and it always come down to two choices; continue traditional CMOS scaling or 3D die stacks. While there are issues with each, it seems that for the designer, the decision...
Talkers vs. Doers in the 3D IC World
Are there still people who are clueless about 3D? Apparently there are. Lots of them. Despite all the discussion and attention 3D integration gets on the conference circuit and through media outlets such as 3D InCites, there are still IC design and process engineers working in semiconductor manufacturing who are still unaware...
Solving Wireless Challenges at IMAPS
The irony of the week: Qualcomm, leader of the wireless world, sends a large contingency to participate in and sponsor IMAPS 2012, taking place at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center in San Diego (I use the term “resort” very loosely), and the wireless was crap (really, I...
The Up and Coming Flavors of 3D Memory
Up until recently, I really hadn’t paid much attention to the the intricacies of memory types required to satisfy the plethora of computing needs from today’s PCs to tomorrow’s data centers and mobile devices. I had a general understanding of caches and main memory, and the increasing need for shorter...
