The Center for Heterogeneous Integration Research in Packaging, or CHIRP, part of the S3IP Center of Excellence, will help to define the future of electronics packaging in the United States and globally for the next decade.
Moore’s Law — the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles about every two years — has held steady for 50 years. That trend cannot continue without some significant changes in thinking; transistors simply can’t get much smaller than they already are.
That’s why heterogeneous integration is so vital. The integration of separately manufactured components, potentially built with different fabrication technologies and material systems, into a single higher-level System in Package (SiP) assembly provides enhanced functionality and improved operating characteristics. At the same time, development costs are drastically reduced and product testing and yields are improved. Heterogeneous integration of many microchips into single packages will be essential to technology ranging from autonomous vehicles to the internet of things for at least the next 10 years.
Faculty teams at Binghamton University and Purdue University will address basic and applied research in global interconnects, efficient power delivery, system design, thermal management, novel materials, reliability and other topics. The center’s initial projects focus on power delivery, thermal management, fine-pitch interconnects and system optimization.
The work is funded in part by Semiconductor Research Corp., a world-class technology research consortium that promotes collaborations among academic institutions, technology companies and government agencies. It will provide $1.8 million to CHIRP from 2019-2022; another $1.8 million will come from Binghamton, Purdue, the State University of New York and other sources.
