CEA-Leti, SHINKO sign common-lab agreement to work on advanced semiconductor packaging technology

GRENOBLE, FRANCE: In a move that promises to provide increased performance and smaller size for portable electronics and other advanced systems, CEA-Leti has signed a multiyear agreement with Shinko Electric Industries Co. Ltd to develop advanced semiconductor packaging technology.

The work, which will be part of Leti’s broader efforts in advanced silicon substrates, will focus on silicon interposers, a technology that has existed for some time but that now offers a number of compelling advantages for next-generation applications. These passive intermediate layers can be used in several ways to boost the useable performance and reduce the footprint of advanced silicon chips, providing much of the benefit of 3D packaging without requiring wholesale changes to design and manufacturing processes.

Example applications include the mounting of multiple chips on a single interposer, and the use of interposers to route large numbers of input/output connections onto silicon dies that would otherwise be too small to accommodate them.

Engineers from SHINKO, headquartered in Nagano, Japan, will work alongside Leti personnel at the common lab, which will be located at Leti’s headquarters facility in Grenoble.

The development of interposer technology is an example of how Leti approaches its mission of bringing innovations from the developmental stage into daily use. Leti provides world-class facilities and expertise for experimentation and evaluation, plus the ability to integrate new technologies into existing high-volume manufacturing flows – an essential step in the commercialization process.

“SHINKO has a long and proud history of bringing innovative products and processes to market, and we are very excited at the prospect of working with them here in Grenoble,” said Laurent Malier, CEO of Leti. “This collaboration will combine the intelligence and creativity of fine technical staffs, and we expect the resulting advances to be quickly adopted into real-world applications.”

“SHINKO has done the preceding development of the processing 3D silicon packaging technologies so far. SHINKO can accelerate Development for the mass production of the next generation high density substrate by the joint development with Leti” said Mitsuharu Shimizu, senior corporate officer of SHINKO.