Partitioning In 3D

By Katherine Derbyshire - 23 May, 2019 - Comments: 2

The best way to improve transistor density isn't necessarily to cram more of them onto a single die. Moore’s Law in its original form stated that device density doubles about every two years while cost remains constant. It relied on the observation that the cost of a processed silicon wafer remained constant regardless of the number of devices printed on it, which in turn depended on litho... » read more

3D NAND Race Faces Huge Tech And Cost Challenges

By Mark LaPedus - 23 May, 2019 - Comments: 8

Amid the ongoing memory downturn, 3D NAND suppliers continue to race each other to the next technology generations with several challenges and a possible shakeout ahead. Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix and the Toshiba-Western Digital duo are developing 3D NAND products at the next nodes on the roadmap, but the status of two others, Intel and China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC), is les... » read more

Power Budgets At 3nm And Beyond

By Ed Sperling - 14 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 0

There is high confidence that digital logic will continue to shrink at least to 3nm, and possibly down to 1.5nm. Each of those will require significant changes in how design teams approach power. This is somewhat evolutionary for most chipmakers. Five years ago there were fewer than a handful of power experts in most large organizations. Today, everyone deals with power in one way or another... » read more

2.5D, 3D Power Integrity

By Ed Sperling - 14 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 0

Chris Ortiz, principal applications engineer at ANSYS, zeroes in on some common issues that are showing up in 2.5D and 3D packaging, which were not obvious in the initial implementations of these packaging technologies. This includes everything from how to build a power delivery network to minimize the coupling between chips to dealing with variability and power integrity and placement of diffe... » read more

Lithography Challenges For Fan-out

By Mark LaPedus - 12 Feb, 2019 - Comments: 3

Higher density fan-out packages are moving toward more complex structures with finer routing layers, all of which requires more capable lithography equipment and other tools. The latest high-density fan-out packages are migrating toward the 1µm line/space barrier and beyond, which is considered a milestone in the industry. At these critical dimensions (CDs), fan-outs will provide better per... » read more

More 2.5D/3D, Fan-Out Packages Ahead

By Mark LaPedus - 15 Jan, 2019 - Comments: 0

A new wave of 2.5D/3D, fan-out and other advanced IC packages is expected to flood the market over the next year. The new packages are targeted to address many of the same and challenging applications in the market, such as multi-die integration, memory bandwidth issues and even chip scaling. But the new, advanced IC packages face some technical challenges. And cost remains an issue as advan... » read more

Where Advanced Packaging Makes Sense

By Ed Sperling - 10 Dec, 2018 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Chenglin Liu, director of package engineering at Marvell; John Hunt, senior director of engineering at ASE; Eric Tosaya, senior director of package manufacturing at eSilicon; and Juan Rey, vice president of engineering for Calibre at Mentor, a Siemens Business. What follows are excerpts of that discussion, which was held in front of a live audience at MEP... » read more

Processing In Memory

By Ed Sperling - 05 Sep, 2018 - Comments: 1

Adding processing directly into memory is getting a serious look, particularly for applications where the volume of data is so large that moving it back and forth between various memories and processors requires too much energy and time. The idea of inserting processors into memory has cropped up intermittently over the past decade as a possible future direction, but it was dismissed as an e... » read more

Old Vs. New Packages

By Jeff Dorsch - 15 Aug, 2018 - Comments: 2

Over the years, the semiconductor industry has witnessed a parade of packaging innovations, such as system-in-package, semiconductor embedded in substrate, and fan-out wafer-level packaging. Two interesting packaging innovations are now being used in the process of miniaturizing microchips and electronics. One is a new concept that combines two tried-and-true technologies. The other is a de... » read more

Return Of The Organic Interposer

By Ed Sperling - 06 Aug, 2018 - Comments: 2

Organic interposers are resurfacing as an option in advanced packaging, several years after they were first proposed as a means of reducing costs in 2.5D multi-die configurations. There are several reasons why there is a renewed interest in this technology: More companies are pushing up against the limits of Moore's Law, where the cost of continuing to shrinking features is exorbitant. ... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
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