Training Insights — 3D-IC: What Is Silicon Interposer?

16 Oct 2023 • 3 minute read

Moore’s Law is slowing down due to rising complexity with advanced nodes (such as below 2nm or 1nm). In addition, manufacturing costs are increasing, and the pace of growth is saturated. Fortunately, 3D-IC is the advanced technology that will overcome these problems, offering distinct advantages for IC designing and manufacturing in the semiconductor industry, and interposers play a key role in this process. In this blog post, we will discuss what an interposer is, where they are used, and how to use them.

An interposer is a component used in electronics and semiconductor manufacturing to facilitate connections between different components or technologies that might not naturally interface with each other due to differences in form factor, electrical specifications, or other factors.

In the context of semiconductors and integrated circuits (ICs), an interposer is a thin substrate that sits between two or more chips or dies, allowing them to communicate and work together. It can provide routing for signals, power distribution, and even thermal management. Interposers are particularly useful when integrating different technologies or combining multiple chips into a single package.

Interposers are commonly used in advanced packaging techniques, such as 2.5D and 3D packaging, which involve stacking multiple dies vertically or horizontally to achieve better performance, power efficiency, and miniaturization. They help overcome challenges related to different chip sizes, manufacturing processes, and electrical interfaces.

Here are some specific examples of how interposers are being used in semiconductor manufacturing:

In 2.5D packaging, interposers are used to stack multiple dies together by placing chips horizontally on the silicon Interposer, where the chips are interconnected horizontally through TSVs, This allows to integrating the different technologies, such as CPUs, GPUs, and memory, into a single package.
In 3D packaging, interposers are used to connect multiple dies vertically, where the chips are stacked by TSVs which allows direct vertical intergraton.This can further improve performance and miniaturization.
In heterogeneous integration, interposers are used to connect different types of chips, such as silicon chips and organic chips. This allows for the creation of more powerful and versatile devices.

For more information about the interposer that is used to design 2.5D IC, you can explore the following demos from Cadence Learning and Support, which are around two minutes each.

Demo: How to Create an Interposer Substrate and Device Using the Integrity 3D-IC Platform?

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