Bob Patti, Founder and CEO, NHanced Semiconductors

In 2026, advanced packaging will continue to grow. With that growth comes renewed focus on the perennial thermal problem – with more circuits stacked in smaller spaces, how can we prevent melt-down? Two solutions are emerging: diamond heat spreaders and in-package liquid cooling.

Diamond heat spreaders will rescue 1.X nm devices

Heat concentration at nanometer scale presents new challenges. Localized hot spots must be tamed to allow maximum performance. Diamond, a technology that has been advancing for decades, appears to be in the right place at the right time to fill that need.

In-package liquid cooling will ship to end customers

In-package liquid cooling, a novelty for more than a decade, has been held back by concerns about the sophisticated "plumbing." However, today's leading-edge semiconductors have burst through the 1,000 W per package wall and are advancing toward several thousand watts per package. While in-package liquid cooling is not yet going mainstream, it should appear in some production devices in 2026.

On other fronts, I expect to see larger interposers (including glass interposers) and the emergence of domestic research facilities such as NGMM/TIE and ASU to seed and incubate new advanced packaging technologies and architectures.