Revising 5G RF Calibration Procedures For RF IC Production Testing


Modern radio frequency (RF) components introduce many challenges to outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) suppliers whose objective is to ensure products are assembled and tested to meet the product test specifications. The growing advancement and demand for RF products for cellphones, navigational instruments, global positioning systems, Wi-Fi, receiver/transmitter (Rx/Tx) componen... » read more

Keeping IC Packages Cool


Placing multiple chips into a package side-by-side can alleviate thermal issues, but as companies dive further into die stacking and denser packaging to boost performance and reduce power, they are wrestling with a whole new set of heat-related issues. The shift to advanced packaging enables chipmakers to meet demands for increasing bandwidth, clock speeds, and power density for high perform... » read more

The Race To Zero Defects In Auto ICs


Assembly houses are fine-tuning their methodologies and processes for automotive ICs, optimizing everything from inspection and metrology to data management in order to prevent escapes and reduce the number of costly returns. Today, assembly defects account for between 12% and 15% of semiconductor customer returns in the automotive chip market. As component counts in vehicles climb from the ... » read more

Wafer Level Void-Free Molded Underfill For High-Density Fan-out Packages


In this study, experiments and mold flow simulation results are presented for a void-free wafer level molded underfill (WLMUF) process with High-Density Fan-Out (HDFO) test vehicles using a wafer-level compression molding process. The redistribution layer (RDL)-first technology was applied with 3 layers of a fine-pitch RDL structure. The test samples comprised 11.5 x 12.5-mm2 die with tall copp... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Acquisitions & Investments California-based MaxLinear plans to acquire Taiwan-based Silicon Motion (SMI), in a cash and stock deal valued at about $3.8 billion. Silicon Motion’s NAND flash controller technology for solid state storage devices, will extend MaxLinear’s RF, analog, and mixed signal portfolio. ISMC will invest about $3 billion in a semiconductor plant in India’s south... » read more

Paving The Way To Chiplets


The packaging industry is putting pieces in place to broaden the adoption of chiplets beyond just a few chip vendors, setting the stage for next-generation 3D chip designs and packages. New chiplet standards, and a cost analysis tool for determining the feasibility of a given chiplet-based design, are two new and important pieces. Along with other efforts, the goal is to propel the chiplet m... » read more

Vehicle Electrification Driving Supply Chain Evolution


Dr. Ajay Sattu, Director, Automotive Product Marketing, Amkor Technology, Inc. If the recently concluded CES 2022 is any indication, the automotive industry is yet again in the cross hairs of both consumers and industry experts alike. Whether it’s the new electric vehicle (EV) model introductions, color changing technologies, or concept cars, automotive companies are slowly transforming th... » read more

Finding And Applying Domain Expertise In IC Analytics


Behind PowerPoint slides depicting the data inputs and outputs of a data analytics platform belies the complexity, effort, and expertise that improve fab yield. With the tsunami of data collected for semiconductor devices, fabs need engineers with domain expertise to effectively manage the data and to correctly learn from the data. Naively analyzing a data set can lead to an uninteresting an... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers, OEMs Intel continues to build more fabs. First, the company announced fabs in Arizona and then Ohio. Now, Intel plans to invest up to €80 billion in the European Union over the next decade. As part of the effort, Intel plans to build two semiconductor fabs in Magdeburg, Germany. Construction is expected to begin in the first half of 2023 and production planned to come online in 2... » read more

Chiplets Enter The Supercomputer Race


Several entities from various nations are racing each other to deliver and deploy chiplet-based exascale supercomputers, a new class of systems that are 1,000x faster than today’s supercomputers. The latest exascale supercomputer CPU and GPU designs mix and match complex dies in advanced packages, adding a new level of flexibility and customization for supercomputers. For years, various na... » read more

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