GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Amkor to collaborate on advanced assembly and test solutions

MILPITAS & CHANDLER, USA: GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Amkor Technology Inc. announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership to develop integrated assembly and test solutions for advanced silicon nodes. The companies plan to collaborate to co-develop and commercialize integrated fab-bump-probe-assembly-test solutions aimed at multiple customers and end-market applications and expand their lead-free bump licensing relationship.

Through the partnership, Amkor would become a founding member of GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ new Global Alliance for Advanced Assembly Solutions, which is designed to accelerate innovation in semiconductor interconnect, assembly and packaging technologies. By joining forces, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Amkor plan to extend the ecosystem to address growing market needs, while bolstering their ability to deliver end-to-end solutions for customers at advanced technology nodes.

Amkor and GLOBALFOUNDRIES have also recently expanded their prior lead-free wafer bump licensing relationship by amending their existing lead-free bumping technology license agreement.

“We are excited to launch our new global alliance by partnering with Amkor to jointly develop advanced packaging solutions,” said Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of technology and research and development at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “Our broad and collaborative approach will give customers maximum choice and flexibility, while delivering cost savings, faster time-to-volume, and a reduction in the technical risk associated with developing new technologies.”

“We are pleased to be working on these new initiatives with an important semiconductor foundry partner like GLOBALFOUNDRIES,” said Dr. Robert Darveaux, Amkor’s corporate vice president, technology and platform development. “The combination of GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ world-class foundry services and technology with Amkor’s advanced bump, probe, assembly and test solutions will drive significant value for our common customers.”

As the industry moves aggressively to more advanced technology nodes, innovation in interconnect, assembly and packaging solutions is becoming increasingly important. Supply chain management has become a critical topic, as the ability to enable innovative packaging techniques can lead to improvements in performance and power-efficiency as well as reduced costs for chip designers. At leading-edge nodes, the adoption of three-dimensional (3D) stacking of integrated circuits is increasingly being viewed as an alternative to traditional technology node scaling at the transistor level.

As new technologies such as this are introduced, the complexity of chip-package interaction is going up significantly and it is increasingly difficult for foundries and OSATs to be able to deliver end-to-end solutions that meet the requirements of the broad range of leading-edge designs. The partnership between GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Amkor will enable the supply chain to better meet these diverse requirements and deliver robust and reliable solutions to mutual customers.