Amidst the global chip shortage, leading chipmaker Samsung has announced a new chip packaging technology. Potentially, the new technology could yield more efficient and faster chips using an innovative chip-packing technique. Samsung continues to maintain its leading position globally in the semiconductor space, and the improved technology will help it sustain its leadership of the segment.
The new technology is called I-Cube4 and is an improved hybrid of Samsung’s homegrown I-Cube2 and X-Cube technologies. The I-Cube4 technology was developed in March 2021. It is a 2.5D heterogeneous chip packaging innovation that can be used to place horizontally, multiple dies like the CPU, GPU, and NPU atop a silicon interposer. The arrangement forms a system in which each die will work as a single chip. The fast-evolving technology has been used successfully to combine one logic die, and four High Bandwidth Memory dies on a single chip.
The emerging possibilities for the high-performance chips that could be produced with this technology are numerous. It can be deployed to 5G, cloud, AI, and several applications that require super-fast semiconductors. It will enable faster communication between components of a chip. For example, memory and logic tasks would be accomplished better than the prevalent chip technology.
Samsung is also pursuing other more robust chipmaking technologies as demand for super-efficient chips continues to rise across the industry. According to Moonsoo Kang, a senior executive at Samsung Electronics, the explosion of high-performance applications has led Samsung to provide what he calls a total foundry solution to improve overall performance and efficiency of chips. Samsung is committed to scaling up its production capacity of these super-packaged chips to meet demand expectations.
Although the emerging technology would have certain aspects that would still need improvement, Samsung Foundry believes the materials are durable. There is the potential possibility that the silicon interposer could bend or warp under intense conditions. There are also improvements in the product quality control process to enhance the identification of defective products during the production process.
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