As an innovative approach to semiconductor design, chip-chip technology provides a new solution for improving chip performance, reducing design costs, and shortening time-to-market by splitting large chips into multiple smaller chips and then integrating these chips into a complete system through advanced packaging technology. However, as with any emerging technology, core technology comes with a number of challenges and obstacles.
The complexity of wafer management and integration
At the heart of die technology is the combination of multiple individual chips into a powerful system. However, this process presents unprecedented wafer management and integration challenges. Each die needs to be fabricated on a separate wafer and packaged and tested through complex process steps. This requires not only a high degree of process control and production flexibility, but also synchronization and coordination between multiple wafers. This complexity increases the probability of errors in the manufacturing process, placing higher demands on production efficiency and product quality.
Yield management challenges
While core technology can theoretically reduce the manufacturing cost of the overall system by improving the yield of individual cores, in practice it faces significant challenges in yield management. Since each core needs to be checked for yield separately, the integration of multiple cores further increases the difficulty and cost of inspection. In addition, differences in performance between different cores can also lead to a decrease in overall system yield. Therefore, how to improve the yield while ensuring performance has become an urgent problem to be solved in the development of core technology.
Figure: Five Challenges of Chipping Technology
The pressure of both efficiency and cost of testing
Testing is an indispensable part of the semiconductor manufacturing process, and for chip technology, test efficiency and cost have become the key factors restricting its development. Since each core needs to be tested separately, the integration of multiple cores adds complexity and time to the test. This not only requires higher accuracy and efficiency of the test equipment, but also requires optimization and improvement of the test process. However, these require a lot of capital and time costs, which puts pressure on the commercialization process of core technology.
Power consumption and heat dissipation challenges
With the continuous improvement of chip integration, power consumption and heat dissipation problems are becoming increasingly prominent. For chip technology, the integration of multiple chips can improve performance, but it also brings higher power consumption and heat dissipation requirements. These problems are especially acute in devices with limited space, such as smartphones. Therefore, how to effectively control power consumption and heat dissipation while improving performance has become a challenge that must be faced in the development of chip technology.
HR needs and professional training
The development and management of core technology requires a skilled and knowledgeable workforce. However, there is a relative scarcity of talent in the market with the expertise required for core design, which poses a challenge for companies to recruit and develop talent. At the same time, as technology continues to evolve, companies also need to constantly update their employees' skills and knowledge base to adapt to changes in market demand. Therefore, strengthening the cultivation and introduction of talents and improving the skill level of employees have become one of the key factors to promote the development of core technology.
Despite the many challenges and obstacles faced by core technology, the innovation potential and business value it brings cannot be overlooked. Through continuous technological innovation, optimization of management processes, strengthening talent training and other measures, enterprises can gradually overcome these problems and promote the rapid development and commercial application of core technology. In the future, with the continuous progress of semiconductor technology and the continuous growth of market demand, core technology is expected to become one of the important development directions in the semiconductor field, injecting new impetus into the sustainable development and innovation of the industry.
