Tag Archives: Advanced Packaging

May 29, 2012 — Growth in handheld, Internet-connected electronic devices — smartphones and tablets — and resurgent automotive demand are increasing IC demand. In turn, increased demand for product functionality is driving up IC packaging revenue faster — a 9.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) — than IC unit growth — 7.3% CAGR 2010-2016, says New Venture Research (NVR).

Figure. IC device and packaging revenue forecast ($M), 2010-2016. SOURCE: New Venture Research.

Handheld electronics will boost the growth of special purpose logic (SPL) communications chips by 16.7% CAGR revenue through 2016, versus 3.5% CAGR in units. Packages for mobile components are dominated by field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and quad flat-pack no-lead (QFN) designs. These 2 package structures are at opposite ends of the pricing structure. The third most popular packaging type, quad flat pack (QFP), is decreasing in usage over time. These devices are expected to have a 14.8% CAGR in revenue through 2016.

Wireless infrastructure products are also in high demand, which is helping boost consumption for standard cell and programmable logic device (PLD) chips. These devices will grow at a CAGR of 16.1% in terms of revenue through 2016, while the device units are projected at 15%. High I/O BGAs are the package of choice over the forecast period — package revenue growth is projected to be slightly higher, at 16.3% CAGR through 2016.

Logic chips are in demand for a host of products, pushing 32-bit MCUs to an 11.1% CAGR unit demand, although only 4.7% device revenue CAGR, through 2016. QFPs and ball grid arrays (BGAs) are the highest-demand package designs for these chips, although the QFP is waning in favor of the BGA. Thus, the package revenue is growing at a CAGR of 12.8% through 2016 for 32-bit MCUs.

This information is included in the newly released report

May 29, 2012 — Rudolph Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: RTEC), back-end macro defect inspection tool supplier, will deliver 14 NSX Series 320 inspection systems to a large outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) provider.

The inspection tools will be installed in Q2, at multiple steps in wafer-level chip-scale packaging (WLCSP) production.

The packaging house chose to order NSX 320 systems following a competitive evaluation, in which they noted its high speed and efficient, easy-to-use operating procedures.

This is a new product for Rudolph. The NSX320 System performs defect inspection and 2D bump metrology, and acquires on-the-fly defect images at production speeds. WLCSP lines require flexibility for handling substrates in various formats while collecting detailed defect and 2D metrology information during the inspection process, said Nathan Little, vice president and general manager of Rudolph

May 29, 2012 — Semiconductor assembly and test services (SATS) provider Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Incorporated (ASE, TAIEX:2311, NYSE:ASX) opened its Phase 3 manufacturing facility in Weihai, Shangdong province, China, boosting discrete packaging and test capacity.

The 5,120sq.m. building offers 30,560sq.m. of floor space, and will require an additionally 2,000 employees in engineering, development, and operations at ASE. Weihai

May 25, 2012 — THE BEST rankings from VLSIresearch identify the highest-rated suppliers of wafer processing, assembly, and test equipment. Chipmakers applauded their suppliers with increased ratings this year, according to a survey by VLSIresearch.

Wafer processing equipment supplier rankings are available here.

Suppliers of assembly equipment
Rank Company Rating
1 Hitachi High-Technologies 9.05
2 F&K Delvotec 8.51
3  Kulicke & Soffa 7.70
4 ASM International 7.61
Source: VLSIresearch 2012 Customer Satisfaction Survey.

Hitachi High-Technologies, a leading die bonder supplier, retained its #1 position for the second year in a row with an excellent rating of 9.05. This rating also earned Hitachi High-Tech the highest rating among all THE BEST Suppliers of 2012. The company topped all categories, earning its highest ratings among all assembly equipment suppliers in 14 of 15 categories. The company

May 23, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO:6503) developed a prototype forced-air-cooled three-phase 400V output inverter with all silicon carbide (SiC) power modules that has a power density of 50kVA per liter.

Mitsubishi Electric developed low resistance and higher power density by directly bonding power semiconductor chip leads to the main terminals, eliminating the use of conventional high-resistance aluminum lead wires. The module

May 23, 2012 – GLOBE NEWSWIRE — Applied Nanotech Holdings Inc. (OTCBB:APNT) uncrated the THERCOBOND family of highly thermally conductive bonding and printed materials for power electronics and photonics packaging. The first 2 products are polymer-based (DTC-P) and ceramic-based (DTC-C).

THERCOBOND materials are designed for power electronic device packaging and dielectric coating, balancing thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, thermal expansion, dielectric and insulating properties, wettability, and printability. The thermal interface composites boast a

May 22, 2012 — Indium Corporation acquired a manufacturing facility in Rome, NY, to expand its production capacities of indium-, gallium-, germanium-, and tin-based materials, as well as other compounds.

Growing sales to solar photovoltaic, flat panel display (FPD), semiconductor and packaging, optical fiber, and light-emitting diode (LED) manufacturers necessitated the expansion.

The new facility enables Indium

May 22, 2012 — Invensas Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tessera Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:TSRA) and provider of semiconductor technologies, debuted bond via array (BVA) technology, an ultra-high-I/O semiconductor packaging alternative to wide-I/O through silicon via (TSV) packaging.

BVA offers package performance for mobile electronics in the established package-on-package (PoP) architecture with copper wire bonds for stack interconnects. PoP designs package die and stack packages, instead of stacking die within a package with TSVs or other technologies. BVA PoP enables reduced pitch and a higher number of interconnects in the PoP perimeter stacking arrangement. It has demonstrated scalability to a 0.2mm pitch. It takes PoP from 240 pins to 1200 pins.

BVA PoP suits applications processor + memory device stacks, increasing processor-to-memory bandwidth. Simon McElrea, president of Invensas, says the PoP structure could enable higher resolution, faster frame rate video streaming, faster search, higher-resolution multi-screen, multi-application operation, more life-like gaming and high-resolution 3D applications — all requirements of mobile devices.

McElrea noted that the PoP structure of BVA is a cost-effective semiconductor assembly method to achieve these high performance requirements in a small form factor. The ultra-high I/O offered by BVA exceeds what is possible with solder ball stacking and solder-filled laser via approaches, Invensas says.

Invensas will present its BVA PoP solution at the Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC) at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina in San Diego, CA. Titled "Fine Pitch Copper PoP for Mobile Applications" the paper will be part of Session 31, "Applications With 3D Technology," at 4:45 PM on Friday, June 1, 2012. Invensas will also exhibit at ECTC in booth 107 on May 30 and 31, 2012.

Invensas Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tessera Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:TSRA), acquires, develops, and monetizes strategic intellectual property (IP) in areas such as circuitry design, memory modules, 3-D systems, and advanced interconnect technologies, to serve the dynamic mobile, storage and consumer electronics sectors. Internet: www.invensas.com.

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May 19, 2012 — Amkor Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) plans to build a state-of-the-art factory and global research and development center in the Incheon Free Economic Zone, which is located in the greater metropolitan area of Seoul, Korea. The new factory and R&D center will focus on the design, development and full scale production of innovative semiconductor packaging and test services for leading semiconductor and electronic manufacturing companies.