TSMC

Company focused on manufacturing single board processors

The idea of ​​making processors and even SSDs from solid silicon wafers may be more popular than it seems. The complexity and cost of such solutions are the main obstacles for single chip chips. Optimized processes can optimize the impact of each of these negative factors. Taiwanese company TSMC takes on this task and expects many new customers.
According to sources, the other day TSMC announced the development of packaging technology InFO SoW (Silicon Fan-Out Integrated in Wafer), which is intended for the production of single-plate processors. This TSMC processor is now available on request from Cerebras. This chip, so to speak, with 21.5 cm sides, is made of an entire 300 mm silicon wafer using 16 nm FinFET process technology. Packing such a crystal required exclusive work, including manuals. The cost of this processor exceeds $ 2 million and advanced automation and packaging and testing processes can help to reduce the cost.



InFO SoW is a consequence of the development of the Integrated Fan-Out and InFO-WLP (wafer level processing) packaging process. In the first case, the individual crystals are cut from the plate and packed separately, which makes room for the output contacts, but leads to an increase in the size of the chip. In the second case, part of the packaging operations are carried out before cutting the plate into crystals, which makes the chips smaller, including packaging, but limits the number of landing contacts. InFO SoW process technology combines both methods, allowing you to process the entire board and in no way limit the superprocessor.



In the InFO SoW method, the board itself with uncut processors serves as a substrate and a “printed circuit board”. During the packaging process, power modules and external interfaces are installed over the crystals. The power modules, through through holes, are connected by a bus to a cooling element, which also removes heat from the processor crystals. As part of the 16 nm process technology, the Cerebras plate processor requires the removal of 7 kW of energy in the form of heat. The packaging offered by TSMC together with the liquid cooling system does an excellent job.



Other advantages of InFO SoW packaging include an increase in signal bandwidth and a decrease in the resistance of interchip compounds, which translates to a 15% reduction in the consumption of compounds between crystals. At the same time, the bandwidth is doubled and the resistance is reduced by 97%. In addition, delays in accessing the chips are reduced. TSMC is ready to deliver the best of this new solid silicon wafer chip industry.

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