Semiconductor makers form alliances to boost sector

Taiwan semiconductor companies are pooling their resources to build up the island’s supply chain further to match dynamic trends in application markets. The industry comprises IC design, manufacturing, packaging and testing segments, with the last two being traditionally strong units. To boost international competitiveness, suppliers are setting up sectoral alliances through technological improvements and volume production schemes.

Logic and DRAM ICs cover chipset, foundry, memory, and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test companies. The groups have Elpida, Powerchip, ProMOS and Winbond in one, and Micron, Inotera and Nanya in another. ChipMOS, Siliconware Precision Industries Co. Ltd, FATC and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. make up the third.

In addition, Industrial Technology Research Institute formed the Advanced Stacked-System Technology and Application Consortium or Ad- STAC with Powerchip, Nanya, ProMOS, Siliconware Precision, Hermes-Epitek, Macronix and BASF. The goal is to establish a cross-industry organization in R&D to pursue 3D IC technology and its advantages of small form factor, high performance, low power consumption and hetero-integration. The last covers stacked memory and heterogeneous packages. The resulting size makes 3D IC chipsets suitable for CPUs, notebook PCs, mobile Internet devices, portable media players, digital cameras, mobile phones, memory cards and solid state disks.

Packaging and testing company Powertech Technology Inc. is currently working with Elpida and UMC. The second owns DRAM and throughsilicon via or TSV technology, while UMC is a logic foundry venture involved in TSV 3D IC production. Powertech plans to set up two 3D IC production lines in the Hsinchu Science Park and Hukuo to meet demand from smartphones and tablet PCs requiring small footprint yet high performance.

Taiwan makers consider TSV one of the most promising in 3D IC technologies. It will enable memory modules and logic ICs to achieve higher bandwidth and speed, smaller footprint and lower power consumption for use in upscale portable electronics. In comparison with POP stacking, the new process can save 35 percent on packaging size and 50 percent on power consumption. Recent applications are found in MEMS, CMOS image sensors, stacked DRAM memory, backside illumination for camera sensors, highbrightness LED silicon modules, and solar and power components.

Advanced Semiconductor believes 3D IC technology will mature in three years, and will be widely adopted by manufacturers of processor and mobile phone chips.
Industrial Economics & Knowledge Center is also encouraging Taiwan suppliers to work with their mainland China counterparts to come up with a unified industrial standard. This targets adoption in the mainland, which is the world’s second largest market.

In this regard, Taiwan should likewise collaborate with system and fabless companies for logic and memory stacking segments such as 3D-SiP, and hetero-integration of baseband and memory used in mobile phones. The effort also extends to applying for patents. At present, there are still production hurdles such as EDA tools, design complexity, and integration of different systems, common standards and interfaces. Bringing down costs when stacking memory, CPU, GPU, baseband chip and mobile phone processor is also a challenge.

IEK projects Taiwan’s 3D IC market will reach about $2.4 billion by 2015, taking up 25 percent of the island’s total packaging and testing industry production value. The worldwide industry, meanwhile, is expected to touch $4 billion by then, based on estimates by Yole. This makes Taiwan the largest global supplier for the category. Smartphones are seen as a major industry driver, followed by PMPs, and automotive and medical electronics.