Wafer-Scale vs. Chiplets: The New War? Part 1


Cerebras’ IPO is a meaningful moment for the semiconductor industry — and not just for the financial implications. Their confidence in their opening price reflects something the industry has effectively acknowledged: incremental chip scaling can no longer keep pace with what AI infrastructure demands. Radical approaches are earning serious consideration and serious capital. Cerebras... » read more

Home Win: Challenging The Traditional Semiconductor Manufacturing Model


Across Europe, many of us have grown accustomed to a model where semiconductor products, subassemblies and components are sourced from the Far East almost by default. The rationale has always been clear: significantly lower labor and manufacturing costs made offshore supply the most commercially viable option. Yet, while this approach has long been convenient, it has never been without compromi... » read more

TSV Complexity Leads To Manufacturing Bottleneck


Key Takeaways: Through-silicon vias are the biggest enabler of 3D chip stacking and chip-to-PCB connections through silicon interposers. The AI boom is causing HBM and advanced assembly shortages, straining the supply chain. Optimization around etch, fill and reveal help reduce TSV cost. Through-silicon vias (TSVs) provide essential interconnects between DRAM dies inside hig... » read more

Chiplet Standards Aim For Plug-n-Play


Key Takeaways Die-to-die chiplet standards are only the beginning. Many more standards are necessary for a chiplet marketplace. A number of such standards have either had initial versions released or are in progress. Existing work covers packaging, a system architecture, various design kits, a universal link layer, and updates to BoW. Today’s chiplets exist in silos. In a ... » read more

Meeting High-Frequency And Power Density Challenges With Flip Chip MLF Packaging


The relentless march of semiconductor scaling continues to reshape the packaging landscape, driven by Moore’s Law and the demand for higher performance in increasingly compact form factors [1]. Over the past two decades transistor density has increased exponentially, with leading-edge processes now achieving densities exceeding 100 million transistors per square millimeter. Certain applica... » read more

Research Bits: Mar. 31


2D hard mask material Researchers from Penn State University and University of Chemistry and Technology Prague propose using the 2D material chromium oxychloride (CrOCl) as a hard mask, because its layered structure is resistant to plasma etching and enables it to be an effective mask at smaller thicknesses. “This 2D material is like lasagna. It’s a layer-by-layer structure,” said Zih... » read more

Quantifying The Impact Of Gravity On Strip Warpage Across Assembly Stages


The mechanical behavior of electronic packages is an important consideration at each stage of the assembly process. Many packages are assembled in strip format, making strip warpage a critical challenge for manufacturability and yield. Accurate simulations for strip warpage are an effective tool to determine what factors cause large warpages and to explore solutions before assembly. In these si... » read more

How AI Is Changing Computing And Why Testing Is Critical


Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, enhancing our daily lives, and improving efficiency and decision-making, but its need for compute processing power is growing at an astonishing rate, doubling every three months (Figure 1). To maintain this pace, the semiconductor industry is moving beyond traditional chip development – it has entered the era of heterogeneous chiplets i... » read more

Redefining Backside Metallization: Low‑Temperature Solutions For HDFO And S‑SWIFT Designs


As chip performance and integration continue to advance, thermal dissipation control has become increasingly critical not only at the wafer fabrication level but also in the packaging industry. For artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance computing (HPC) applications, the industry is gradually shifting toward 2.5D integration. In response to the growing demand, High-Density Fan-Out (HD... » read more

Unlocking Next-Gen Thermal Management: Why Indium-Based Metal TIMs Are Game-Changers


As electronic devices become more powerful and compact, thermal management has become one of the most critical challenges in advanced electronic packaging. High-performance processors used in AI computing, data centers, and 5G/6G infrastructure generate significant heat, and failure to dissipate effectively can lead to reduced performance, reliability issues, and even catastrophic component fai... » read more

← Older posts