Tech Demos Served With Music and Food: An Overview of Silicon Players That Matter

The marketing folks were out in force at the Common Platform gathering. At least 15 booths were spit polished and decked out in their finest to attract customers needing electronic device pieces, parts and services.

Music and delicious finger foods tempted attendees as they wandered the exhibits. The alliance of IBM, Samsung, and GlobalFoundries drew several exhibitors to show off their wares. 

Unfortunately, on-site photographs were verboten, but here is a snapshot of what those companies purport to do. You might want to look them in depth at their websites.

This article highlights the following companies: Uniquify, True Circuits, Inc, Toppan, STATS ChipPAC, Sidense Corporation, S3 Group, MOSIS, Magma, Kilopass Technology, Helic, DNP -Dai Nippon Printing, ASE Group, Aragio Solutions, Apache, Analog Bits, Alvand Technologies and Albany Nanotech. Read on for a thumbnail sketch of the players involved in today's leading edge technologies.

Let's start with STATSChipPAC which provides semiconductor design, bump, probe, packaging, test and distribution solutions for communications, computer and consumer markets. Their services include advanced process technology in wafer level, flip chip and 3D packaging.

They claim several firsts related to embedded wafer level ball grid array (eWLB) manufacturing, such as innovative second generation side-by-side devices embedded in a package. The design advantage is that the package size is larger than the silicon die in order to provide sufficient area for the interconnection of the package to the application board.

The second booth in our tour was Uniquify whose fingers are in 65nm, 40nm, 32nm and 28nm process technologies. They provide ASIC design and intellectual property (IP) solutions through Perseus, an ASIC methodology. They claim the only DDR IP that guarantees chip and system yield via their patented feature Self-Calibrating Logic (SCL) and dynamic SCL.

Moving along we came to True Circuits Inc. (TCI) which delivers high performance and general purpose timing IP in off the shelf and fully customized versions. They have a large portfolio of PLL and DLL IP on 90nm and 65nm processes.

They come in a range of frequencies, multiplication factors, sizes and functions for the latest DDR, SerDes, video and other interface standards. While enjoying the trio of musicians, we continued around the room.

ASE Group develops and offers a wide portfolio of technology and solutions. They include IC test program design, front-end engineering test, wafer probe and bump, substrate and IC assembly. Continuing, they provide final test and electronic manufacturing services. ASE also has copper wire bond solutions.

Our next stop was Sidense Corp which provides secure, very dense and reliable non-volatile, one-time programmable (OTP) memory IP for use in standard-logic CMOS processes without additional masks or process steps. It is an alternative to Flash, mask ROM and eFuse in many OTP and multi time programmable (MTP) applications. The OTP is available from 180nm down to 40nm and scalable to 28nm and below.

The services of S3 Group facilitate design and delivery of next-generation devices, systems and services aimed at consumers at home and on the road. With Ireland headquarters and worldwide offices, S3 services IC designers and product managers with a portfolio of high performance silicon proven mixed-signal IP, and design assistance for power-efficient single-chip systems.

MOSIS is a low-cost prototyping and low-medium volume production semiconductor foundry service. MOSIS provides designers with a single interface to the constantly changing technologies and options available from the semiconductor industry. In addition to MPW (multi project wafer) services, MOSIS also offers the option to provide dedicated engineering runs and full production wafers in low-medium quantities.