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January 12, 2015

Rozalia Beica, GXMBA, MSc., CTO, Yole Développement



Rozalia Beica, GXMBA, MSc., CTO, Yole Développement
Rozalia Beica, GXMBA, MSc., CTO, Yole Developpement
2014 was an excellent year for Advanced Packaging, for the industry in general and also for Yole Développement (Yole) in particular.

The high growth of consumer based products, driven by smartphone and mobile applications, have significantly impacted the packaging segment of the semiconductor industry. At Yole, we have seen a lot of activities across several packaging platforms, from the more mature ones, such as WLCSP and Flip Chip to newer platforms such as fan-out and embedded technologies, System in Package and 3D stacking using TSVs.

All Yole's technology and market analysis are detailed on i-micronews.com website, advanced packaging reports section.

The high-end applications have also had their share of new and exciting developments and announcements in 2014. The industry has witnessed several announcements of products using 3D stacking for high end applications, thus moving adoption beyond MEMS and CMOS Image Sensors for consumer applications and FPGAs for logic to high end memories and processors. Major memory manufacturers (Hynix, Micron, Samsung, Tezzaron) have reported shipping engineering samples for servers, high performance computers and graphics, moving into volume production by the end of 2014. Intel also announced the introduction in 2015 of their new processor Xenon Phi “Knights Landing” using Micron's HMC stacked DRAM, and AMD and Nvidia using HBM in their next generation graphics modules.

The industry has certainly proven that increased performance can be achieved with 3D TSV, the only challenge still remaining to be addressed is cost. In efforts of reducing cost, especially targeting mid and low end applications, new materials and packaging technologies, manufacturing approaches are being developed, such as glass and organic interposers and panel manufacturing. Substrate makers as well as materials and equipment suppliers have been very active in developing more advanced substrates and solutions to manage warpage and achieve more advanced processing capabilities. Due to high interest in this area and several requests Yole received throughout 2014, our analysts are in process of preparing a multi-customer action on advanced substrates which will be launched in Q1 2015. A similar action will be performed in 2015 on System in Package, targeting mobile and Internet of Things applications.

Embedded technologies, especially fan-out, was another hot topic in 2014, with intense activities and new players entering this segment. Besides Nanium and Stats ChipPac, who have been early adopters and already in production with eWLB, the dominant fan-out technology, and Nepes using Freescale's RCP technology, Yole now has many other organizations active in this space, such as ASE, TSMC, SPIL, J-Devices, ADL, etc. Although production is currently being performed on wafers, development and plans on moving onto panel infrastructure - for further cost reductions - are in progress. Will the supply chain be ready to support panel manufacturing in 2015? This is another topic we are currently investigating at Yole, and will cover in a new report in 2015.

The high growth of Advanced Packaging and increase of its significance in the overall semiconductor industry is attracting new players across the entire supply chain. In 2014 we have been involved in several strategy consulting projects advising our clients on what strategies to take and supporting their Mergers & Acquisitions activities. At Yole, we are expecting such activities to increase in 2015. Combining our deep technical and market expertise in Advanced Packaging and across several other markets supported by Yole (MEMS, Power Electronics, Photovoltaics, Photonics, Microfluidics, Compound Semiconductors, etc.), with IP services, reverse engineering and costing as well as finance activities, our company Yole, is well positioned to support our clients and industry in their quest for future growth strategies.

Advanced Packaging and Semiconductor Manufacturing activities have experienced remarkable growth at Yole Développement in 2014. Yole doubled its revenue and size of the team and is preparing for future growth due to continuing high demand coming in; by end of Q1, the company is planning to triple the size of its team compare to the level Yole had at the start of 2014, by bringing in very experienced, industry packaging experts. Yole is moving into the New Year with great and exciting projects, several new prospects and an even higher growth expectation supported by a great team of experienced and passionate analysts.

2015 will be an incredible year! Join the @Micronews community to receive weekly breaking news and important information about the semiconductor industry. You can register to our free e-newsletter @Micronews at http://www.i-micronews.com/registration.html.
For more information about Yole Développement services, our collection of reports and new topics for 2015, please visit i-Micronews.com or contact David Jourdan, Commercial & Communication Dept.
Rozalia Beica, GXMBA, MSc., CTO
Yole Développement
http://www.yole.fr
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