Amkor Technology Inc. (Chandler, AZ) and Sharp Corp. agreed to unify the design for a 3D system-in-package assembly that enables the stacking of very thin packages. Targeting ASICs, DSPs and memories for the cell phone, PDA and digital still camera markets, the two companies will develop and enhance an industry-standard stacked package format utilizing Amkor's stackable etCSP™ package and Sharp's package-stacked CSP. The first proposal for the new package format, coined 3D-SiP, will be to standardize the terminal position of individual, stackable packages containing ASIC and memory devices.
"As the cellular phone market moves toward 3G, and mobile applications like PDAs combine networking and graphic processing capabilities, they will require multiple ASICs per device," stated Mike Steidl, Amkor's vice president for advanced product development. "Given the high cost of system-board real estate, packaging areas need significant reduction. Stacking complex memory devices on baseband ICs or ASICs eliminates the need for additional packaging area, even if another memory device is added for high-density memory."
