Bump Co-Planarity And Inconsistencies Cause Yield, Reliability Issues


Bumps are a key component in many advanced packages, but at nanoscale levels making sure all those bumps have a consistent height is an increasing challenge. Without co-planarity, surfaces may not properly adhere. That can reduce yield if the problem is not identified in packaging, or it can cause reliability problems in the field. Identifying those issues requires a variety of process steps... » read more

Improving Redistribution Layers for Fan-out Packages And SiPs


Redistribution layers (RDLs) are used throughout advanced packaging schemes today including fan-out packages, fan-out chip on substrate approaches, fan-out package-on-package, silicon photonics, and 2.5D/3D integrated approaches. The industry is embracing a variety of fan-out packages especially because they deliver design flexibility, very small footprint, and cost-effective electrical connect... » read more

Thermal Simulation Of DSMBGA And Coupled Thermal-Mechanical Simulation Of Large Body HDFO


Electronic packaging has continued to become more complex with higher device count, higher power densities and Heterogeneous Integration (HI) becoming more common. In the mobile space, systems that were once separate components on a printed circuit board (PCB) have now been relocated along with all their associated passive devices and interconnects into single System in Package (SiP) style suba... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Some funding details are now available for the CHIPS Act in the U.S. The Biden Administration plans to spend the money in the following ways: $28 billion to establish domestic production of leading-edge logic and memory chips through grants, subsidized loans or loan guarantees; $10 billion to increase production of current-generation semiconductors and chips, and $11 billion for rese... » read more

Fan-Out Packaging Gets Competitive


Fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) is a key enabler in the industry shift from transistor scaling to system scaling and integration. The design fans out the chip interconnects through a redistribution layer instead of a substrate. Compared to flip-chip ball grid array (FCBGA) or wire bonds, it creates lower thermal resistance, a slimmer package, and potentially lower costs. Yet, if the h... » read more

Heterogeneous IC Packaging: Optimizing Performance And Cost


Leading integrated circuit (IC) foundries are already shipping 7-nm and 5-nm wafers and 3-nm product qualifications are ongoing. Wafer costs continue to soar as high transistor density requires ever more expensive processes to fabricate them. Even if defect densities can remain relatively flat as new nodes emerge, the cost per unit area of silicon increases nonlinearly. These economics have pla... » read more

Making The Most Of Data Lakes


Having all the semiconductor data available is increasingly necessary for improving manufacturability, yield, and ultimately the reliability of end devices. But without sufficient knowledge of relationships between data from different processes and computationally efficient data structures, the value of any data is significantly reduced. In the semiconductor industry, reducing waste, decreas... » read more

Week In Review, Manufacturing, Test


Post-CHIPS Act Micron is discussing a potential new fab that could employ thousands of workers, following the passage of the Chips and Science Act. Idaho is hoping it will be built near its headquarters facilities in Boise, but Micron hasn’t committed publicly. Rob Beard, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Micron, told the Idaho Statesman the company is consi... » read more

Scaling, Advanced Packaging, Or Both


Chipmakers are facing a growing number of challenges and tradeoffs at the leading edge, where the cost of process shrinks is already exorbitant and rising. While it's theoretically possible to scale digital logic to 10 angstroms (1nm) and below, the likelihood of a planar SoC being developed at that nodes appears increasingly unlikely. This is hardly shocking in an industry that has heard pr... » read more

IC Package Illustrations, From 2D To 3D


In five words or less can you describe what a semiconductor is? Some might say a computer chip, others may say they are "space magic," but I would venture that most people have never heard the word before and would simply say "I have no idea." I was certainly a part of the latter crowd before I began my internship with Amkor Technology where I was brought on board as a 3D illustrator to create ... » read more

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