ASE, Inc. CEO, Dr. Tien Wu, has often referred to Sun Tzu’s legendary quote when describing semiconductor market volatility, “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” This rang particularly true over the past few years. Undoubtedly, the semiconductor chip emerged heroic from the chaos of pandemic times, underscoring its relevance and impact on 21st-century life, particularly as digital transformation kicked into high gear. But in the glaring global spotlight was the semiconductor industry itself and the supply chain disruption that caused unprecedented effects to ripple across society.
We are well on our way into 2022 now, a year holding much hope for innovation that can truly create improved realities across our interconnected world. At ASE, we’re taking stock of who we are and how we will innovate technologies for the greater good. That requires reflection on the year gone by and perspective on what’s ahead. I recently 
asked some of ASE’s executives for their thoughts:
Mark Gerber, Sr. Director of Engineering and Technical Marketing, surmised, “This last year has brought exciting new technological advancements within the packaging ecosystem. Heterogeneous integration has gained interest across all market segments, which has driven many new package structures that support greater integration, improved performance, and optimized silicon yields. Supporting technologies such as Hybrid Bonding, Advanced Redistribution Layer and Chiplet/Passive Integration are a few examples of leading-edge tools that ASE is using to further enable our customer products.”
Echoing Gerber’s thoughts that Metaverse boom and 5G-NR roll-out will escalate the demand for higher performance solutions around digital, RF, and analog systems, is Sophia Djurovic, Director of Business Planning, “Leading industry analysts are very focused on how the metaverse is driving significant innovation across Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, Compute, Server, and Artificial Intelligence.”
With his take, Eelco Bergman, Sr. Director, Business Development, commented, “The age of Chiplets has truly started, cemented by product and production start announcements from leading suppliers. He continued, “We believe that adoption of Chiplets will drive the industry to evolve from silicon-centric thinking to system-level planning and place crucial focus on co-design of IC and package. Heterogeneous Integration will play a vital role in bringing Chiplet-based designs to market.”
Ou Li, Sr. Director of Engineering, described how the 2022 technology buzz across packaging and application can be attributed to, “MEMs and sensors for wearable and Internet-of-Things, Power devices for the automotive industry, Wafer Level Packaging and Flip Chip for mobile and consumer industries, and 2.5D/3D and System-in-Package innovations for data center, cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, and 5G.”
ASE Fellow and Chair of the Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap (HIR), Dr. Bill Chen, visualizes a clear path ahead for Heterogeneous Integration given its impact on innovation around Chiplets, High-Performance Computing, and Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, augmented by opportunities on the innovation horizon for autonomous automotive and beyond 5G.
Initiatives related to sustainable manufacturing remain a high priority, with Sr. Director of Corporate Communications, Jennifer Yuen, pointing out, “As the focus on ESG strategy within the semiconductor industry intensifies, ASE continues to step up by implementing innovative measures as part of our commitment to a win-win sustainable future and reaching towards our low carbon, circular, inclusive, and collaborative goals.”
Our industry’s future has never been brighter. The metaverse is going to be a big part of our future and, as we progress into 2022, it’s important to understand strategic and portfolio implications. After all, semiconductor chips literally form the brain of every single electronic device currently transforming our world. As part of this complex ecosystem, ASE is innovating to ultimately help deliver the compute power and system performance necessary for a safer, healthier, and more sustainable planet.
This article first appeared as part of our Community Reflections in the 2022 3D InCites Yearbook. Read the entire article here.
