Category Archives: Packaging

MOSIS, a provider of low-cost prototyping and small volume production services for custom ICs, has teamed up with imec, Ireland’s Tyndall National Institute and ePIXfab, the European Silicon Photonics support center providing low-cost prototyping services for photonic ICs. The partnership gives MOSIS’ customers access to imec’s state-of-the-art fully integrated silicon photonics processes and Tyndall’s advanced silicon photonics packaging technology.

Packaged passive silicon photonics chip, showing imec’s silicon photonic chip andTyndall’s fiber array packaging.

Imec’s silicon photonics platform enables cost-effective R&D of silicon photonic ICs for high-performance optical transceivers (25Gb/s and beyond) for telecom, datacom, and optical sensing for life science applications. The offered integrated components include low-loss waveguides, efficient grating couplers, high-speed silicon electro-optic modulators and high-speed germanium waveguide photo-detectors. A comprehensive design kit to access imec technologies will be provided. Moreover, the Tyndall National Institute, being a partner of ePIXfab, offers the ability to provide packaged silicon photonics devices. This includes the design and fabrication of custom photonic packages, fiber coupling (single and arrays) and electrical interconnects. Design rules to support these packaging capabilities will also be provided.

“Imec’s Silicon Photonics platform provides robust performance, and solutions to integrated photonics products. Companies can benefit from imec silicon photonics capability through established standard cells, or explore the functionality of their own designs in MultiProject Wafer runs,” stated Philippe Absil, program director at imec. “With this collaboration, MOSIS will offer its first access to a mature Silicon Photonics infrastructure, with the option for follow-on production,” added Wes Hansford, MOSIS Director.

The first ePIXfab-Europractice run for passive silicon photonics ICs is open for registration from June 2013 with design deadline September 9th 2013. MOSIS’ customers can register for this run and obtain the design kit via MOSIS in June 2013.

Imec’s Si Photonics 200mm wafer platform includes:

  • Tight within-wafer silicon thickness variation 3sigma < 2.5nm
  • 3-level patterning of 220nm top Si layer (193nm optical lithography)
  • poly-Si overlay and patterning (193nm optical lithography)
  • 3-level n-type implants and 3-level p-type implants in Si
  • Ge epitaxial growth on Si and p-type and n-type implants in Ge
  • Local NiSi contacts, Tungsten vias and Cu metal interconnects
  • Al bond pads
  • Validated cell library with fiber couplers, polarization rotators, highly efficient carrier depletion modulators and ultra-compact Ge waveguide photo-detectors with low dark current.
  • Design kit support for IPKISS framework, PhoeniX Software and Mentor Graphics software

Tyndall’s Si Photonics Packaging Technology enables:

  • Passive device packaging, single and multi-fiber arrays to grating couplers
  • Active device packaging, modulators and detectors with electrical ports and fiber arrays
  • Custom packaging requirements (mechanical, thermal stability etc.)

EI


May 2, 2013

Endicott Interconnect Technologies, Inc. (EI) announced that its System-In-Package (SiP) technology performed successfully as a key subsystem of Lockheed Martin’s Extended Area Protection and Survivability (EAPS) Program during a test on March 22 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. EI’s technology acts as the command center of a very small hit-to-kill interceptor designed to defeat rocket, artillery and mortar attacks.  

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The worldwide semiconductor assembly and test services (SATS) market totaled $24.5 billion in 2012, a 2.1 percent increase from 2011, according to final results from Gartner, Inc.

"After experiencing relatively mild 1.8 percent growth in 2011, the SATS market remained in a slow-growth mode for 2012," said Jim Walker, research vice president at Gartner. "Weakness in the PC market, which started in 2011 and carried into 2012, and lower overall consumer demand were contributors to the slow growth. This weak demand for semiconductor devices resulted in inventory buildup for much of the year."

ASE remained No. 1, with revenue of $4.4 billion (see Table). Packaging accounted for 80.5 percent of the company’s total assembly/test/materials (ATM) revenue. As the No. 2 vendor, Amkor Technologies’ 2012 total revenue was down slightly (0.6 percent), at $2.8 billion, due partially to the aggressive strategy in the copper wire-bonding transition by ASE, SPIL and others. Third-place SPIL was able to achieve revenue of $2.2 billion, with 90 percent of the revenue from packaging and 10 percent from test. At No. 4, STATS ChipPAC is the last of the top four broad-based package supplier companies in Gartner’s top five. In the fifth spot, Powertech Technology (PTI) is differentiated from the others in that the majority of its revenue comes from servicing the memory segment of the semiconductor market.

Another factor for the slow growth in the market in 2012 was the overinvestment in both SATS and integrated device manufacturer (IDM) packaging capacity in 2010 and 2011. This oversupply of both advanced and traditional packaging capability by many device makers created a weaker pricing environment for outsourcing services in 2012 and left the industry in an oversupply condition with lower factory utilization.

Nevertheless, even in this slow-growth environment, the SATS market saw the continuation of the rapid transition from gold to copper wire bonding, resulting in lower-cost packaging processes. It was also a year in which flip-chip and wafer-level packaging (WLP) technologies continued to be an increasing part of the revenue contribution for the top companies in the SATS market.

Additional information is provided in the Gartner report "Market Share Analysis: Semiconductor Assembly and Test Services, Worldwide, 2012." 

Amkor Technology, Inc. today announced that Stephen D. Kelley has been appointed to serve as president and chief executive officer and as a director of the company, effective May 8, 2013. Kelley succeeds Ken Joyce, who previously announced his intention to retire. Kelley’s appointment follows a comprehensive, six month search process conducted by the Board of Directors with the professional assistance of a global executive recruiting firm.

 “We have been investing significant resources in the key packaging and test technologies that support the rapidly growing market for smartphones and tablets, and today we are well-positioned to take advantage of significant growth opportunities in mobile communications and our other end markets,” said James J. Kim, Amkor’s executive chairman of the board of directors. “Steve Kelley has a wealth of experience helping major global semiconductor companies grow revenues and increase profitability. With his strong record of success, deep customer knowledge and great drive, Steve is the ideal CEO to lead Amkor.”

Most recently, Kelley served as chief executive officer of Scio Diamond Technology Corporation, an industrial diamond technology company, and as a senior advisor to Advanced Technology Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi-sponsored investment company that owns GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a full service semiconductor foundry. Kelley, 50, has more than 25 years of experience in the global semiconductor industry, including as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Cree, Inc. from 2008 to 2011, as vice president/general manager of display, standard logic, linear and military businesses at Texas Instruments, Inc. from 2003 to 2008, in various positions with Philips Semiconductors from 1993 to 2003 including senior vice president and general manager, and in various positions with National Semiconductor Corporation and Motorola Semiconductor. Kelley holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.

“I’m very excited to join the Amkor team,” said Kelley. “Throughout its history, Amkor has been a pioneer and technology leader, and I look forward to the opportunity to build on that success.”

Kim also commented on the retirement of Joyce.

“Ken has had a remarkable career, including over 15 years of service to Amkor,” he said. “Today, Amkor is well-positioned for success with industry-leading technology in our key end markets, and the entire Board of Directors joins me in thanking Ken for helping to lead us here. We are fortunate that Ken has agreed to be available to work with Steve over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition.”

Amkor is a leading provider of semiconductor packaging and test services to semiconductor companies and electronics OEMs.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced the industry’s first production of ultra-high-speed four gigabit (Gb) low power double data rate 3 (LPDDR3) mobile DRAM, which is being produced at a 20nm-class process node.

The new 4Gb LPDDR3 mobile DRAM enables performance levels comparable to the standard DRAM utilized in personal computers, making it an attractive solution for demanding multimedia-intensive features on next-generation mobile devices such as high-performance smartphones and tablets.

“By providing the most efficient next-generation mobile memory with a very large data capacity, we are now enabling OEMs to introduce even more innovative designs in the marketplace,” said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. “Our 20nm-class four gigabit mobile DRAM provides another example of our ability to deliver well-differentiated, high-performance, high-density memory to customers in a timely manner.”

The 4Gb LPDDR3 can transmit data at up to 2,133 megabits per second (Mbps) per pin, which is more than double the performance of the preceding memory standard mobile DRAM (LPDDR2) with a data transmission speed of 800Mbps. This makes it possible to transmit three full HD videos, collectively 17GBs in length, in one second over the new Samsung chip embedded in a mobile device.  

Samsung’s 20nm-class LPDDR3 mobile DRAM enables seamless display of full HD video on smartphones with five inch-or-larger screens. In comparison to a 30nm-class LPDDR3 DRAM, the new device generates more than a 30 percent improvement in performance and 20 percent savings in power consumption.

While mobile gadgets continue to scale down in height, battery packs have been increasing in size. By adopting Samsung’s 4Gb LPDDR3 mobile DRAM, OEMs can have a 2GB package that includes four of Samsung’s new chips in a single package that meets the memory package height of 0.8mm.

Representing a major growth factor in the DRAM market, Samsung plans to increase production of its advanced 20nm-class mobile DRAM later this year, solidifying its competitiveness as a memory industry leader.

According to market research firm, Gartner, the DRAM market is forecast to grow by 13 percent year-over-year to reach $29.6 billion USD in 2013, with mobile DRAM to exceed $10 billion in sales, for 35 percent of the total DRAM market.

China rose to the top of the PC market for the first time ever on an annual basis last year, relegating the United States to second place with a lead of more than 3 million units, according to an IHS iSuppli PC Dynamics Market Brief from information and analytics provider IHS.

PC shipments in 2012 to China amounted to 69 million units, exceeding the 66 million total reached by the United States. Only a year earlier in 2011, the United States was the leading global destination for PCs.

Beyond its large size, China’s PC market exhibits distinct characteristics that set it apart from the computer trade elsewhere, possessing a vast untapped rural market and unique consumer-purchasing patterns. While desktop PC shipments lagged notebooks around the world, the two PC segments were on par in China in 2012, with an even 50-50 split, as shown in the table below.

China PC shipments

“The equal share of shipments for desktops and notebooks in China is unusual, since consumers in most regions today tend to prefer more agile mobile PCs, rather than the bulky, stationary desktops,” said Peter Lin, senior analyst for compute platforms at IHS. “The relatively large percentage of desktop PC shipments in China is due to huge demand in the country’s rural areas, which account for a major segment of the country’s 1.34 billion citizens. These consumers tend to prefer the desktop form factor.”

The market will change gradually as desktop PCs face rising competition from the high value proposition presented by notebooks. Notebooks will then surpass desktops in the country by 2014, tracking more closely with the worldwide desktop-to-notebook PC ratio of 36 to 64 percent.

The desktop vs. notebook pattern of consumption in China is only one example of the distinctive hallmarks of the country’s dynamic PC market. In another indicator, China also has approximately a 50-50 proportion in consumer vs. commercial PCs, compared to the 65-35 percent ratio for the rest of the world.

A third pattern unique to the China PC market is the preferred notebook display size of 14 inches, which accounts for more than 70 percent of notebook PC shipments in the country. For the rest of the world, the 14-inch makes up less than 30 percent.

A fourth pattern of note is the attach rate of PCs with a pre-installed operating system, especially for notebooks. While mature PC markets in other parts of the world claim a 90 percent attach rate, the proportion for China comes out to lower than 50 percent, with the ratio even lower in the desktop PC market.

Despite such exclusive behavior, the China PC space shares one common trait with the worldwide PC market. Like the rest of the world, demand in China remains weak as consumers migrate to using mobile devices like cellphones. China’s PC market is projected to grow only by 3 to 4 percent this year.

Even so, a vast market opportunity continues to exist for PCs in the country, in the form of potential first-time buyers mostly residing in the countryside. The government already plans this year to invest some 40 trillion yuan—equivalent to some $6.4 trillion—to build rural infrastructure in the next 10 years, and PC original equipment manufacturers can take advantage of the initiative to build out and expand from the cities, IHS believes.

China is also on track to retain its position as the largest PC market in the world for the foreseeable future unchallenged and alone—further providing PC brands a rare opportunity for expansion, counter to the myriad travails they face in the rest of the world.

SEMI today announced that Philip Yeo, chairman of SPRING Singapore, and Lee Kok Choy, country manager of Micron Technology Inc. Singapore, have been voted by the SEMI Singapore Regional Advisory Board as recipients of two prestigious awards recognizing their contributions to the development and success of the Southeast Asian semiconductor industry. The awards will be presented during festivities held at SEMICON Singapore 2013 on 7 May, 2013.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to Yeo for his pioneering and significant contributions to Singapore’s economic development, especially in the promotion and growth of the semiconductor industry. During his tenure as Chairman of the EDB, Yeo was instrumental in leading Singapore’s strategic growth and investment into the semiconductor industry, which today boasts an annual output of over $49 billion, hires over 42,000 employees and has 14 wafer fabrication plants. Yeo was also the former chairman of A*STAR and former special advisor for Economic Development in the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office.

The Industry Contribution Award will be presented to Lee for his work in advancing the competitiveness of the wafer fabrication industry in Singapore. Lee’s career in the Singapore semiconductor industry spans more than four decades, including positions at Texas Instruments, TECH and Micron. During his tenure at TECH and Micron, Lee was instrumental in growing their Singapore presence and maintaining Singapore’s competitiveness in the midst of competition from Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers. Lee also led the world’s first factory conversion from 200mm to 300mm technology while simultaneously maintaining production, and was instrumental into making Singapore into a base of Flash memory production that started in partnership with Intel.

"The contributions and accomplishments of both Yeo and Lee are well known within the Singapore and Southeast Asian semiconductor industry and these awards are a worthy recognition of their achievements on behalf of our industry," said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.

Terry Tsao, president of SEMI Southeast Asia added: "Yeo and Lee’s dedication to advancing the establishment and growth of the industry here has helped build Singapore into a globally recognized center of microelectronics innovation and manufacturing."

The award recipients were voted by the SEMI Singapore Regional Advisory Board (RAB), an advisory group of industry executives focused on advancing SEMI’s mission in Southeast Asia through the development and support of programs and initiatives designed to accelerate the growth and increase the visibility of the semiconductor industry in the region. The advisory board is led by newly elected executive directors including chairman KC Ang, senior vice president and general manager of GLOBALFOUNDRIES Singapore; vice-chairman Russell Tham, regional president, Applied Materials South East Asia and corporate vice president, Global Continuous Improvement, Applied Materials Inc.; and vice-chairman Jen Kwong Hwa, site director, Micron Semiconductor Asia.

"On behalf of SEMI and the industry, the SEMI Singapore RAB is proud to honor Yeo and Lee with these awards that acknowledge the key roles they have played in growing the Singapore semiconductor industry over the last two decades,” said KC Ang. “From a public and private sector perspective, their contributions have resulted in a robust semiconductor ecosystem in the region, where we continue to see this industry driving the global economic growth and now even enabling the explosive growth of the mobility markets that we are witnessing today."

The awards will be presented during two separate events held as part of SEMICON Singapore 2013. The Industry Achievement Award will be presented to Lee during the event opening ceremony on May 7 from 9:30am-10:00 a.m. at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center, and the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Yeo during the SEMI Singapore VIP Dinner, also on 7 May, at the Fullerton Hotel.

Rudolph Technologies, Inc., a provider of process characterization, photolithography equipment and software for the semiconductor, FPD, LED and solar industries, announced today that it has purchased selected assets, including a strong patent portfolio, relating to metrology capability from Tamar Technology, Newbury Park, Calif. The addition of Tamar’s advanced metrology technologies to Rudolph’s existing inspection and metrology systems will allow the company to address the emerging need for fast, precise three-dimensional (3D) measurement capabilities in the rapidly-growing advanced packaging market sector.

“The purchase of these assets adds new capabilities to our technology portfolio, which addresses an emerging need for 3D measurements to control copper pillar bumping in advanced packaging processes,” said Michael Jost, vice president and general manager of Rudolph’s Inspection Business Unit. “Tamar’s technology is already well-known and widely used. Integrating it into our NSX and F30 inspection and metrology platforms adds critical capability and value to an established and reliable tool set. Several customers brought this exclusive technology to our attention; and it was readily apparent that the acquisition of these assets would significantly enhance the breadth of our advanced packaging solutions. In addition, this purchase gives Rudolph a significant patent portfolio that we plan to fully leverage. The integration work is essentially complete and we expect to receive initial system orders in the coming months.”

Copper pillar bumping for flip-chips has been forecast to grow at a 35 percent CAGR from 2010 to 2018. While copper pillar bumping processes are the most significant immediate application, Tamar’s products are capable of critical measurements required in several packaging applications. For example, one application uses infrared light to measure TSV depth from the backside of the wafer, thus avoiding the limitations on via aspect ratio encountered by most frontside measurement approaches.

“We expect the addition of these unique and proprietary capabilities to positively influence both unit volume and margins while helping Rudolph to maintain our #1 market share position in this rapidly growing sector,” said Jost.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. However, the company noted that the asset purchase agreement includes an earn-out contingency that, if met, would bring the total transaction value to approximately $10 million. The company also noted that it expects the transaction to be accretive to earnings within the first 12 months.

Tamar Technology, based in Newbury Park, California, is a precision metrology company specializing in systems for the semiconductor, hard disk drive and medical device industries.  Rudolph provides a full-fab solution through its families of proprietary products that provide critical yield-enhancing information, enabling microelectronic device manufacturers to drive down the costs and time to market of their products.

An estimated 405 million handsets, including 197 million smartphones, were shipped in the first quarter of 2013, according to market intelligence firm ABI Research. Smartphone shipments grew 38 percent year-over-year (YoY) while feature phone shipments declined 5.2% YoY. Shipments of all handsets grew 12 percent YoY in the first quarter thanks to the continued strength of the smartphone market, which achieved an all-time high of 49% shipment penetration.

“Worldwide handset and smartphone shipments exhibited classic Q1 softness,” says senior analyst Michael Morgan. “Samsung accomplished strong smartphone growth while Apple dismissed a troubling mix of slowed growth and declining margins as a sign that the older iPhone 4S was in high demand.”

Nokia handset shipments plummeted to 62 million in Q1 with smartphone shipments at a 5-year low of 6.1 million. Considering market and OEM specific conditions, BlackBerry delivered a respectable 6 million shipments, with 1 million coming from the launch of BlackBerry 10-based devices. Despite HTC’s well-designed ONE devices, shipments continued to decline 37 percent YoY to 4.8 million. LG continued its revival with 10.3 million smartphone shipments and 16.2 million handset shipments.

“The last time a major smartphone OEM showed a trend of decreasing margins combined with falling ASPs and slowing growth, BlackBerry was still on the favorable side of a large market share and revenue drop,” adds senior practice director Jeff Orr. “With major product announcements teased for Q3, Apple risks falling behind the innovation curve unless the next iPhone is more revolutionary than evolutionary.”

About 1,000 of the world’s leading experts in the field of microelectronics will gather here for the 2013 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, from June 11-13, 2013 (Technology) and from June 12-14, 2013 (Circuits). The Symposia alternate between Kyoto, Japan and Honolulu, HI annually and serve as the premier mid-year gatherings to present research for the advancement of microelectronics technology and circuit development.

To foster joint interactions among device technologists and circuit/system designers, the technical programs of both Symposia will overlap for two days, and attractive joint technology-circuits focus sessions – which were successfully introduced in last year – will be held again. For a single registration fee, attendees can benefit from unique opportunities for interdisciplinary learning that cannot be replicated by other important conferences in each area.

More than 200 presentations will be given, including short courses prior to each Symposium, invited speakers addressing the industry’s most important issues, evening rump sessions spanning a range of topics at the leading edge of technology and circuit design, and a compelling luncheon talk. Also, the Symposium on VLSI Technology will be preceded by the Silicon Nanoelectronics Workshop on June 09-10, 2013 and the Spintronics Workshop on LSI in the evening of June 10, 2013.

“This year’s VLSI Technology program will highlight the breakthroughs in the evolution of SoC and More-than-Moore technologies such as advanced CMOS devices, eDRAM, new NVM’s, image sensor, and their processes (lithography, interconnects and 3D stacks), as the semiconductor industry is moving to the beyond 22nm node,” said Hitoshi Wakabayashi of Tokyo Institute of Technology, Symposium Chair of the 2013 Symposium on VLSI Technology.

“The VLSI Circuits program will present major advancements in the designs with scaled devices at and below 22nm and also with three dimensional chip stacking with TSVs, as well as more universal topics such as energy-efficient electronics, bio-medical applications, and wireline/wireless communications interfaces,” said Makoto Nagata of Kobe University, Symposium Chair of the 2013 Symposium on VLSI Circuits.

Both Symposium Chairs also expressed that: “Joint focus sessions provide excellent opportunities of close interactions among technology and circuits communities, with alignments of selected topics in a program as well as a common session room for ease of participation.”