Sound Bites from IMAPS Global Business Council

Yesterday, a full line up of industry experts offered their perspective of supply chain developments for 3D packaging, in addition to general commentary on what needs to occur to solve current technology limitations. In no particular order, here’s a collection of evocative comments I collected throughout the day.

Jan Vardaman, TechSearch International on TSV programs: Almost everyone has a TSV program. Despite the downturn, people are putting money into the TSV area. People recognize if you don’t put your money in the emerging technologies, you won’t be able to play in that market later.

Bill Bottoms, Nanonexus on the future of wire bond stacking: “We need to get rid of stacked die wire bond assembly. In the future, we can’t afford space, additional inductance, and additional power. Interconnect density will out-run anything we can do with wire bond."

Rosalia Beica, Semitool and EMC3D Consortium on the benefits of partnership: "In order to successfully implement 3D IC technology in the industry , we need a good understanding of the providers of this technology. If we can provide solutions to overcome challenges, it will be easier to implement the technology.”

Eric Beyne, IMEC, on 3D terminology: “There is confusion with 3D terminology . How can we come to a clear roadmap if we don’t have a clear definition of 3D technologies?” and on comparing overall cost of 3D IC development: “We have to be careful with cost comparison. If you look only at the cost of TSV it’s not realistic.”

Bob Patti, Tezzaron, on lessons he’s learned as an early adopter of 3D IC integration: “I’ve been involved in 3D for 10 years, and one thing I’ve learned is that it’s really hard to change this industry.” And on the Evolution of 3D technologies: “I think right now, there are too many choices. In the future there will be more than one, but fewer than today. Reduction to volume practice will pick the winners.”

Jean Trewhella, IBM, on the IDM’s viewpoint of collaboration projects in 3D: “Collaboration allows us to get points of view from many different users, even if IBM is not serving that space, our partners will be.”

Jim Walker, Gartner, on the effect of 3D Integration on the supply chain: 3D and TSV are changing the structure of the semiconductor industry. There’s a change in IC design rules; true system-level design is now possible. The supply chain is restructuring, and the roles of equipment and materials suppliers are being redefined, as front-end equipment manufacturers and material suppliers are getting involved.

Tom Gregorich, VP packaging, Qualcomm on adopting TSV in cell phones: TSV TSS (through silicon stack) Is the most viable next generation technology for cell phone 3D construction.

Leo Linehan, Rohm and Haas, on the material providers perspective of 3D technologies: “These conferences are useful for material scientist to learn about the end-use challenges. We as a material vendor are looking for economy of scale. With TSV, a real opportunity is coming in the future, with stacked memory and on the MPU side. CMOS image sensor, while in high volume, is a relatively small market for us.”

Suresh Gowalker, Intel, on various roles for TSV in future packaging technologies: Processor and memory will require customization as complexities, interdependencies, and performance demands go up. Dedicated thermal TSVs for thermal management, and DRAM TSVs to “feed the beast” (power limitations) are viable options.

Marc Robinson, VCI, on successfully rolling out a new technology in the existing supply chain: “VCI’s key role was to ensure the process integrates seamlessly into the existing supply chain. We had to demonstrate that there wouldn’t be much change to the existing infrastructure. Establishing equipment and material partners helped to convince the supply chain it was ready for adoption.

The three-day Device Packaging Symposium kicked off today, with a full track on developing 3D technologies. So look for continuing coverage, and sound bites from this event later in the week. - F.v.T