Has it really been a month since the European 3D TSV Summit? This inaugural event certainly caused a buzz in the blogosphere! In addition to all my coverage after having attended the event, Phil Garrou has been slogging his way thorough the proceedings to provide an in-depth review on Insights from the Leading Edge. I think he’s up to Part 3. Additionally, iMicronews offered “a closer look” at George Kimmich’s talk from ST Ericcson.
In catching up on my 3D IC news, I also read on IFTLE, that at ISS in Half Moon Bay last month, Samsung announce that like TSMC, it plans to provide turnkey solutions for 2.5 and 3D ICs, including front-end foundry services, backside processing and final assembly. This comes as no surprise, and if there’s any ONE company that can pull it off its Samsung, since they also manufacture Memory. That’s been an ongoing sticking point with TSMC’s end-to-end offering. I’m curious to see how this shakes up the open collaboration supply chains popping up everywhere.
In addition to Paul Werbaneth’s guest blog post on 3D InCites on the Common Platform Tech Forum, I’d like to direct you to comments made by MonolithIC 3D’s CEO, Zvi Or-Bach in a blog post regarding IBM’s presentation on the 3D Era. l Or-Bach questions why, when IBM clearly understands “the limitations of TSVs as an alternative to vertical interconnect” they aren’t considering monolithic 3D as another approach to 3D?
I also caught an interesting interview with eSilicon’s Javier DeLaCruz on iMicronews about eSilicon’s latest efforts to enable 2.5D and 3D architectures through its MoZAIC Program. This catchy acronym stands for “Modular Z-Axis IC” and according to DeLaCruz, “deals with the complexities and solutions for integrating die from multiple suppliers in a 2.5/3D-IC. eSilicon can act as the central integrator, bringing together disparate supply chain partners and managing the complexities of the new model.” The interview goes on to address such areas as the new links in the supply chain with 2.5D and 3D architectures, the die design process, the importance of looking at the total system when comparing costs, and the role of an IP supplier in the midst of this evolving landscape. Definitely worth a look-see.
And from the elusive world of EDA, SemiWiki’s Daniel Payne posted a summary of a recent Synopsis videolog on Modeling TSV, IBIS-AMI and SERDES with HSPICE. Fuad Badrieh from Micron talked about using this tool for electrical modeling of TSVs. I won’t pretend to understand what Payne is talking about in his summary, but you might. He also posted some great diagrams. Check it out.
Lastly, I want to welcome back Steve Leibson to the semiconductor manufacturing blogosphere. Steve recently joined Xilinx and will be a regular blogger on All Programmable Planet. Here’s his introductory post, Hello Planet. On behalf of your fan club, Hello Steve! I hope you’ll be writing about 3D topics. Your industry input has been sorely missed – at least by me! F.v.T.
