February 5, 2013
Richard Crisp, Vice President and Chief Technologist, Invensas Corp
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Richard Crisp, Vice President and Chief Technologist, Invensas Corp
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The computational memory strategic inflection point
continues in 2013. The Ultrabook, with its abandonment of the workhorse single
die packaged DRAM, will begin to ramp into significant volumes.
It is now
clear: solderdown memory is here to stay in the thin client platforms such as
the Ultrabook and tablets. New multi-die DRAM packaging technology such as
Invensas' DIMM-in-a-PACKAGE™ modules, will gain traction in the marketplace
offering cost and area reduction to the motherboard while bringing build-time
configuration flexibility via integrated co-support of DDR3 and LPDDR3
technologies using a common PCB.
Smartphone handsets now require bandwidth that would have
been unheard of in all but supercomputers only a short number of years ago.
Conventional wisdom is these high bandwidth 25+ GB/sec memory-to-processor
links can only be provided using TSV technologies or Chip on Chip stacking. Neither
approach supports the preferred Package On Package ("POP") stacking method and
both are too immature and expensive to give confidence of the practicality of
an annual multi-hundred million unit production ramp anytime soon.
The industry
always finds a cheaper solution and the Invensas Bond Via Array ("BVA™")
technology is one such assembly method that can provide more than 1200 I/Os on
a 200 micron pitch for POP application using a highly-manufacturable
wirebond-based assembly process.
Server and Datacenter memory is demanding performance and
capacity scaling and within a declining power envelope. Reaching unprecedented
system clock rates will require a rethinking of the workhorse industry-standard
BGA ball map and packaging, with an emphasis on signal integrity and thermals
for high density arrays.
New multi-die DRAM packages such as the Invensas DFD™
offer significant advances in thermal and electrical performance while
supporting the latest DDR4 technology features in a density-scaled package
featuring a ballmap designed for speed. Yet the manufacturing is based on
proven high volume window BGA wirebond technology.
Despite all the change in the wind, wirebond continues to
reign supreme in DRAM applications in 2013.
Richard Crisp, Vice President and Chief Technologist
Invensas Corp
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