by Jeff Dorsch
The era of 3D integration calls for greater collaboration among fabless semiconductor companies, silicon foundries and the silicon supply chain, according to Ivo Bolsens, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Xilinx.
Giving Wednesday’s keynote address, titled “All Programmable – From Silicon to System,” Bolsens said his company’s collaboration in supporting today’s 3D devices with silicon interposers and advanced packaging stretches back to 2006. In 2008, Xilinx began meeting with suppliers of silicon equipment to learn about manufacturing capabilities firsthand. After that, it turned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and other foundries to discuss the process issues involved, he noted.
“It was almost a science project,” Bolsens recalled, as Xilinx held meetings with suppliers of semiconductor materials and packaging to gather greater understanding of all the aspects that go into producing a 3D chip. The product introduction finally came last year.
“The supply chain clearly has changed in the last few years,” he said. “Three-D is driving that. We are broadening our touch points in the supply chain.”
As one of the world’s leading suppliers of field-programmable gate arrays, Xilinx has to “bridge a pretty big gap between the system houses and our suppliers,” Bolsens noted. Xilinx has Ericsson and other system manufacturers among its customers, and “we talk to our customers about the value we bring to them,” he added.
Collaborating with companies in the supply chain and among foundries is “definitely a win-win situation,” the Xilinx executive asserted. Establishing a continuous, early feedback loop with the foundry as the first 3D chips went through their wafer fab was key to identifying IC defects and correcting them in short order, he said.
“A chip is as good as its weakest link,” Bolsens observed.
To meet the challenges of cost reduction, design support and scalability, Xilinx and other fabless companies are looking to electronic design automation vendors to help resolve a number of issues, he said. “The EDA industry has to come to the rescue,” he added.
In conclusion, 3D integration poses a number of challenges, according to Bolsens. “The cost has to go down. The industry has to agree on scalability,” he said. “There’s a lot ahead of us.”