Thermo-Mechanical Stress On Active Chiplets In A 3D-IC Heterogeneous Package Assembly

The move to heterogeneous multi-chip/chiplet products improves yield, performance and modularity while reducing power and overall product footprint. However, this shift to heterogeneous assembly also introduces new complexities that can influence chip warpage and circuit behavior due to thermo-mechanical stress impacts.

In heterogeneous 3D IC architectures, the interaction between the chips and packages can compromise device functionality if not properly validated. Research has shown these thermo-mechanical stress impacts can lead to not only obvious package-level mechanical failures like die cracking, solder joint fatigue, warpage and delamination, but also more subtle impacts on circuit performance due to piezoresistive effects.

Evaluating and understanding the intra-package thermo-mechanical stress and its influence on circuit behavior is therefore crucial for ensuring the quality and reliability of heterogeneous 3D IC designs. This requires close collaboration between chip designers, package designers, and manufacturers to accurately model and simulate the 3D package assembly, including material properties and manufacturing processes.

By addressing stress-related issues early in the design cycle through a process of chip-package co-design and co-optimization, chip designers can mitigate the risks and ensure the performance and reliability of their heterogeneous 3D IC products.

What you’ll learn:

• How thermo-mechanical stress introduces complexity in heterogeneous 3D IC assembly that can influence chip warpage and circuit behavior.
• Why evaluating and understanding the intra-package thermo-mechanical stress and its influence on circuit performance is crucial for ensuring quality and reliability of 3D IC designs.
• Why close collaboration between chip designers, package designers and manufacturers is required to accurately model and simulate the 3D package assembly in order to predict and mitigate stress-related issues early in the design cycle.

Who should read this:

• 3D-IC designers
• Advanced packaging engineers
• CAD engineers
• Stakeholders in the 3D IC ecosystem

Read more here.