Applied Materials and A*STAR to drive advanced 3D chip packaging
SINGAPORE: Applied Materials Inc., global leader in providing manufacturing solutions for the semiconductor, flat panel display and solar photovoltaic industries, and the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), a world-renowned research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), officially opened the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Packaging at Singapore’s Science Park II today. Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr. Lim Hng Kiang, presided at today’s opening ceremony. The Centre of Excellence in Advanced Packaging has been built with a combined investment of over USD$100 million from Applied Materials and IME. The world-class facility features a 14,000 square foot Class-10 cleanroom and is equipped with a fully-integrated line of 300 millimetre manufacturing systems to support the research and development of 3D chip packaging, a critical growth area for the semiconductor industry. The Centre will be the most advanced lab of its kind dedicated to wafer level packaging and will combine Applied Materials’ leading-edge equipment and process technology with IME’s leading research capability in 3D chip packaging. The Centre positions Singapore as a global leader in semiconductor R&D and is expected to help accelerate the development and adoption of 3D packaging technology globally. Traditionally, chips are connected to packages using wires attached to only their edges. This approach limits the possible number of connections from the chip and the long wire connections result in signal speed delays and power inefficiencies. With 3D chip packaging, multiple chips can be stacked on top of each other and connected with wiring that runs vertically through the stack – called through-silicon vias (TSVs). When used to stack memory chips on logic chips, this technology is expected to reduce package size by 35%, decrease power consumption by 50%, and increase data bandwidth by a factor of eight or more times. Conceived to support […]