August 10, 2011 – Ron Huemoeller, SVP of advanced 3D interconnects at Amkor, participated in two panels at SEMICON West 2011: 2.5D silicon interposer packaging technologies and supply chain, and 3D packaging technology and the ecosystem. He shared his thoughts on the panel topics during a video interview at the show.

Among the issues Huemoeller sought to emphasize via the 2.5D panel is the importance of silicon interposers, the timeline with respect to their integration, and the assembly and supply constraint challenges. With respect to the latter, he said the industry is suffering from a lack of supply on the part of interposers, which could negatively impact the industry with respect to product timing and the release of products. Furthermore, there are hand-off issues that take place from the interposer side to assemblers (e.g., chip/package interactions).

In going from 2.5D to 3D packaging technology, Huemoeller explained that the industry needs to have the right design tools in place, i.e., EDA tool sets and the software. Still another challenge is the thermal issues that emerge when stacking die. "The 3D sector has not addressed these thermal issues," he said, whereas, "the 2.5D sector has addressed these nicely." A second problem is how cost will affect the dovetailing of products into one to meet customer timing requirements. He anticipates that 2.5D technology will remain in play for a long period of time. 3D technology should start to come into play with the smart phone sector, followed by larger die sector/higher power applications in the latter part of this decade. "[3D] probably won’t be fully adopted until 2019/2010, primarily because of the software issues," he said.