Next generation package substrates: Myth, niche or high volume necessity?

LYON, FRANCE: Yole Développement announce the release of its latest research study about 3D silicon and glass interposers, named 3D Silicon and Glass Interposers: Tech-nologies, Applications and Markets.

This report contains a list of all the 3D silicon/glass in-terposer opportunities by application. Yole Développement analyze the key drivers, expected benefits, and the various technology options and alternatives. In addition, the company will cover the 3D interposer industry players and the respective supply chain changes.

Several concurrent factors account for the growing momentum of 3D silicon and glass in-terposers: the continuously increasing gap between printed circuit boards and integrated circuits, both in terms of geometries and materials, has driven research and development of new innovative semiconductor assembly and packaging solutions over the past 10 years, including System-in-Package (SiP), Package-onpackage (PoP), flip-chip Ball grid Array (fc-BGA) or more recently fan-out Wafer Level Packaging.

The introduction of these recent technologies fills the gap by offering finer pitch interconnections and by alleviating the ex-ternal IO interface thanks to recombined interconnections inside the package. However, a growing number of industry players now claim that the gap has become so wide that a new disruptive technology, such as 3D silicon or glass interposers, is needed.

Concurrently, the so-called “mid-end infrastructure” (foundries for wafer level packaging operations) has developed at an unprecedented pace over the past three years to meet the growing demand for Wafer-Level Chip-Scale Packaging (or “fan-in WLCSP”) and flip-chip. These new facilities, half way between front-end foundries and conventional assembly and packaging facilities now support high volume manufacturing on large size wafers, thus permitting economies of scale.

“These players, in search of growth opportunities, have positioned as service providers for the back-end operations for the making of through silicon vias (TSV’s) and other related wa-fer-level assembly operations, explains Jean-Marc Yannou, Project Manager at Yole Déve-loppement. Thanks to 3D silicon/ glass interposers, they can go one step further, and actual-ly propose products combined with their service offer.”

The industry is not clear where 3D interposers will have the most impact. These new inter-poser technologies, based on silicon wafer technologies such as wafer-level photolithogra-phy, are introducing thinner and denser substrates which can profoundly change the semi-conductor packaging and assembly ecosystem. Of course, the upfront investments can sometimes limit the technology benefits.

This report first focuses on the driver applications and the associated drivers by application. For each application, Yole Développement’s analysts simulate costs and compare them with projected market prices, they compare the 3D si/glass interposer solution with existing and other emerging alternatives and we derive detailed market and wafer forecasts.

Will 3D silicon/glass interposers be an intermediate step to 3D TSV’s in active IC’s, or is this a long term trend? How will the supply chain evolve to serve these emerging technologies? … These are the questions Yole Développement address in this first-ever dedicated report on 3D glass/ silicon interposers. Despite the emerging character of the 3D silicon/glass in-terposer solutions and the associated uncertainties, this report brings clear answers as to which applications and uses they are likely or unlikely to support in the future, and whether these will stay niche or rather expand to high volume manufacturing.Source: Yole Développement, France.