X-FAB Silicon Foundries, a foundry for analog/mixed-signal and specialty semiconductor solutions, is now able to support volume heterogeneous integration via Micro-Transfer Printing (MTP), thanks to a new licensing agreement with X-Celeprint. This will mean that a diverse range of semiconductor technologies cab be combined together, each being optimized for particular functional requirements. These will include SOI, GaN, GaAs and InP, as well as MEMS.
In order to become the first foundry to provide customers with MTP-based heterogeneous integration, X-FAB has made substantial investments over the last two years. It has also established new optimized workflows and cleanroom protocols. This will allow customers to work with the foundry on heterogeneous design projects - benefitting from a low-risk and fully scalable business model that offers a clear migration to volume production.
X-Celeprint’s proprietary massively parallel pick-and-place MTP technology stacks and fans out ultra-thin dies based on different process nodes, technologies, and wafer sizes. It results in the formation of virtually monolithic 3D stacked ICs, which have enhanced performance, greater power efficiency, and take up less space. Furthermore, all this can be achieved at an accelerated rate, thereby significantly shortening time-to-market.
Volker Herbig, VP of X-FAB’s MEMS business unit said that by licensing X-Celeprint’s disruptive MTP technology, they are uniquely positioned in their ability to facilitate the incorporation of numerous different semiconductor technologies. He also said that X-FAB customers will be able to utilize a technology that no other foundry is offering, and existing X-Celeprint customers may now tap into capacity levels that will easily meet their future demands. As a result, X-FAB can assist customers looking to implement complete multifunctional subsystems at the wafer level, even when there are high degrees of complexity involved. Signal conditioning, power, RF, MEMS, and CMOS sensors, optoelectronic devices, optical filters, and countless other possibilities will all be covered.
Kyle Benkendorfer, X-Celeprint’s CEO said that their agreement with X-FAB represents a major milestone in the commercialization of MTP technology, broadening the number of customers and applications. High-volume heterogeneous integration of elements derived from various source wafers will provide the semiconductor industry with significant new capabilities, including access to higher density devices with more functionality, fabricated at high yields and lower cost, within shorter timeframes.
