{"id":21393,"date":"2023-05-24T22:47:53","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T02:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/a2globalelectronics.com\/?p=21393"},"modified":"2023-05-25T11:13:05","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T15:13:05","slug":"fabless-oems-are-making-semiconductor-chips-faster-and-smaller-what-that-means-for-organic-substrate-packaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/a2globalelectronics.com\/ja\/global-sourcing\/fabless-oems-are-making-semiconductor-chips-faster-and-smaller-what-that-means-for-organic-substrate-packaging\/","title":{"rendered":"Fabless OEMs Are Making Semiconductor Chips Faster And Smaller \u2014 What That Means For Organic Substrate Packaging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.2″ _module_preset=”default” module_alignment=”center” custom_padding=”|||0px||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”|||1px||” inline_fonts=”Arial,Verdana” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Fabless OEMs are developing revolutionary ways to make semiconductor chips faster and smaller. Yet this drive for specialized, hyper-powerful miniaturized electronics presents challenges on the production end for OSAT business models.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Profit and efficiency go hand-in-hand, which is why producing items in bulk is generally the most profitable business strategy for manufacturing companies. <\/span>Outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) vendors are no different, typically producing <\/span>organic substrate packaging<\/span><\/a> for integrated circuits (ICs) based on low-mix, high-volume <\/span>business models. The problem with this approach is that it doesn\u2019t fully meet the needs of the current market in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. With a global organic substrate packaging material market expected to reach<\/span> $18.2 billion by 2027<\/span><\/a>, it\u2019s critical to understand the driving motivation behind miniaturization and how OEMs and <\/span>OSATs<\/span><\/a> are responding.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all relative: shrink the components to shrink the whole<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Organic <\/span>substrate packaging<\/span><\/a> materials are utilized on printed circuit boards (PCBs). PCBs are at the heart of modern electronics, and have been optimized from the original through hole technology (THT) to surface mount technology (SMT) that reduced the size of PCB assemblies with significantly higher circuit densities. The latest SMTs use 3D printers to create multi-layer, high-density interconnect (HDI) PCBs to achieve dense circuitry compositions, some having as many as<\/span> 36 layers<\/span><\/a>. The HDI PCB market is expected to reach<\/span> $16.4 billion<\/span><\/a> by 2025; yet another reason for <\/span>low-mix high-volume production<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But if PCBs are the heart of modern electronics, transistors are their lifeblood \u2014 and that\u2019s where technology advances become more individualized and the need for <\/span>high-mix low-volume emerges on the OEM side<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The challenge: Getting more out of Moore\u2019s Law<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

At the heart of miniaturization is a SWaP-based challenge the semiconductor industry somewhat unintentionally set for itself in 1965 that has driven the technological boom defining modern times. Moore\u2019s Law, the theory casually postulated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, famously forecasted that the number of transistors in microchips will<\/span> double<\/span><\/a> every two years. At some point, this will no longer be possible due to the <\/span>physical properties<\/span><\/a> of transistors, but for now, the theory holds true.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The original transistor produced by Bell Labs in 1947 was large enough for manual applications. By 2012, Intel could fit over 100 million<\/span> 22-nanometer transistors<\/span><\/a> onto the head of a pin. The current industry leader, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), plans to reduce this to just<\/span> 2 nanometers<\/span><\/a> \u2014 but it\u2019s a race to the finish line with Intel aiming to have<\/span> 1.8-nanometer transistors<\/span><\/a> also manufacturing ready by 2024. For reference, silicon has an atomic size of 0.2 nanometers, meaning a 2-nanometer transistor is just 10 atoms wide.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The major limiting factor in making transistors even smaller is the physical nature of ICs. In an electronic circuit, electrons move through copper wires while interacting with the particles within the wire. This produces heat, which causes energy loss in the system, and leads to a slower velocity. The more transistors packed into an IC, the more heat it produces. At some point, keeping the transistors at a cool enough temperature to function will require more energy than the voltage they conduct.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a solution:<\/span> photonic integrated circuits<\/span><\/a> (PICs).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Photons don\u2019t need to travel through wires. Their position can be used as information carriers, guided nearly frictionlessly with mirrors and lenses so they don\u2019t lose energy through excess heat production. And it doesn\u2019t get faster than the speed of light: photos outpace electrons<\/span> twenty times<\/span><\/a> in microchips.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s opportunity in customization\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Besides HDI PCBs and PICs, fabless OEMs have other tools in their belt to keep Moore\u2019s law alive, such as new transistor designs and 3D architectures. But there are other opportunities as well. Changes in hardware architecture have progressed faster than the codes that run on them. For example, running more efficient code with C requires fewer processes than Python to perform the same tasks, in some cases yielding computationally-heavy responses<\/span> 47 times faster<\/span><\/a> than the original code.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And while there are some general solutions like these that can be applied to any computer, it\u2019s not necessarily economically in the best interests of producers or consumers. High-volume production levels have kept the steadily rising cost-to-benefit ratio of minimization research <\/span>manageable<\/span><\/a>, but the general consumer doesn\u2019t need expensive<\/span> quantum photonic processors<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As such, OEMs need <\/span>high-mix low-volume production to innovate small batches of advanced, <\/span>customized solutions<\/span><\/a> to drive AI and deep learning forward. The lack of versatility has led to speculation about the<\/span> decline of computers as general-purpose technology<\/span><\/a>, but perhaps OEMs and OSATs can strike a balance between the economic benefits of mass production and the advancement of technology through customized solutions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more:<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n