Samsung Electronics expands application of 2.5D package ‘iCube’ to PLP

THE ELEC ‘Advanced Package Conference’
Jeongho Lee Samsung Electronics AVP Team PL Announcement
‘2024 Korea Electronic Manufacturing Industry Exhibition’ side event

Samsung Electronics is expanding its application of 2.5D package technology I-Cube to panel level package (PLP). The plan is to reduce the use of expensive silicon interposers and maximize productivity through the PLP process. PLP implements inter-chip connections through redistribution lines (RDLs) and silicon bridges, rather than silicon interposers.

Lee Jeong-ho, PL, Samsung Electronics Advanced Package (AVP) advanced development team, said at the ‘2024 Advanced Semiconductor Package Innovation Technology Conference’ hosted by The Elec at COEX, Seoul on the 24th, “We are currently conducting mass production through the iCube process with various customers.” He said, “We are currently mass producing the iCube 4, and development is underway for the iCube 8.”

He added, “We are currently developing a package technology (iCube-E) that can accommodate 12 high-bandwidth memories (HBMs), and we are proceeding by applying panels (rather than wafers) to increase cost efficiency.”

iCube is a 2.5D package technology used to horizontally arrange semiconductor dies (CPU, GPU, I/O, HBM, etc.) on an interposer. TSMC calls it Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS). Representative semiconductors made with 2.5D package technology include NVIDIA A100, H100, and Intel Gaudi.

Samsung Electronics plans to expand this technology to PLP. This PL said, “(If the iCube process is carried out in PLP), it is possible to produce more than 3 times more products than wafers,” and added, “(Connection between chips) is cost-effective by connecting chips with (silicon) bridge and RDL technology rather than interposer.” “We will be able to create a solution,” he emphasized. This means that if 12 iCube packages were possible through wafers, 36 packages are possible at once using PLP.

Another reason why Samsung Electronics is pushing to expand iCube to PLP is to lower the fab load due to interposer production. Interposers are produced through a 12-inch fab, and from the fab’s perspective, higher added value can be created if these wafers are used for semiconductor mass production rather than interposers. The industry predicts that Samsung Electronics will introduce iCube using PLP starting in the third quarter of this year.

The Elec = Reporter Noh Tae-min [email protected]

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