Chip stacking consortium coalesced by Intel, TSMC, and Samsung
Advanced chip-packaging and stacking technologies are the next frontier in semiconductors, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is collaborating with Intel and Samsung to create new industry standards for this emerging technology and will be utilized in the development of next-generation, more powerful electronic devices.
TSMC, Intel, Samsung, all of these companies are chip manufacturing companies, which have extensive know-how in chip design, processing, building, and integrating them, but instead of concentrating on the front end of the semiconductor production process, they are now concentrating on the rear end, or packaging, process. Chip packaging is becoming increasingly important as chipmakers attempt to gain an advantage in a highly competitive industry. A chip’s capacity for transistors is limited, thus manufacturers are increasingly attempting to maximize their products’ performance by arranging and stacking chips in various forms.
TSMC advanced packaging services create the best solutions to unleash its customer’s innovations by advancing the core technology, providing integrated turnkey services, and leveraging intelligent packaging fab.
Intel makes chips that have many different applications and use a variety of packaging technologies. Intel packages undergo final testing for functionality, performance, and power. Chips are electrically coded, visually inspected, and packaged in protective shipping material for shipment to Intel customers and retail.
Samsung provides innovative semiconductor solutions, including DRAM, SSD, processors, image sensors with a wide-ranging portfolio of trending technologies.
The semiconductor industry has focused on reducing the size of the chip so far. But microfabrication today is nearing its limits. Technology competition between semiconductor companies is now moving to packaging, which is moving away from traditional wire bonding and soldering to multi-function, very large-scale integration using new advanced packaging technologies.
According to a NikkeiAsia report, the world’s three largest chipmaking powerhouses announced on Thursday (March 3, 2022) that they will join forces with Qualcomm, Arm, Meta, Microsoft, and numerous other industry leaders to form a new consortium. This approach keeps up with industry standards for chip packing and stacking, which are the last steps in the chipmaking process.
An unusual move indeed, given that the three largest chipmakers are joining forces to set a new industry standard for the semiconductor industry. UCIe, short for Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express, is expected to be the new standard name for the new packaging. It is possible that UCIe may serve as a stepping stone to a fresh wave of new chips from all manufacturers, and it will be interesting to see how this turns out, especially given the difficulty of process node upgrades becoming increasingly challenging.
Info sources:
http://www.thelec.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=3002
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/Intel-TSMC-and-Samsung-join-forces-on-chip-stacking-technology
Image sources:
https://www.designnews.com/sites/designnews.com/files/styles/article_featured_standard/public/AdobeStock_195934780.jpeg?itok=sbLz6ilo
https://unsplash.com/photos/wl8hZoJBSU8?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink
Source:
Carl John T. Rebadomia
