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SECAP to Install 300 mm Electroplating Bumping Line in Asia Open to the Industry SECAP Drives Packaging Technology With Complete 300 mm Line Running in High-Volume Production Environment
The 300 mm line will be available to customers and prospective customers of the SECAP member companies for equipment demonstration and evaluation of process technology, including integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), foundries and merchant bump foundries (post-foundries). The line will further be available to SECAP associate members (material suppliers) for advanced research and design of new packaging materials. "The industry's transition to 300 mm technology thus far has focused heavily on front-end equipment and process issues," commented Franz Richter, SUSS MicroTec CEO. "But back-end processes also need to be performed at the wafer-level. Interest in 300 mm process equipment for wafer bumping and wafer-level packaging has increased significantly in the last 12 months, not only for microprocessors including FPGAs, ASICs, graphical chip sets and memory devices. SECAP believes that Unitive is the ideal partner for this project because Unitive is already using SECAP equipment in its 200 mm lines and has a leading electroplating and redistribution technology. Therefore, qualification of SECAP 300 mm equipment for the Unitive process will prove the capability of SECAP equipment for the most demanding wafer-level packaging technology. The entire industry will benefit from this project." The SECAP line enables member companies to further optimize their equipment for the integrated process flow of typical wafer bumping lines. A seamless process flow is crucial for a successful move to WLP, since different equipment technologies cannot be viewed in isolation because of the interdependency and integration required to establish a complete process line. "The SECAP line harmonizes the different types of equipment and processes used for advanced packaging and features electroplating as the enabling method of solder bump deposition," said Ray Thompson, Semitool CEO. "The lithography process, for example, cannot be addressed independently of the metallization techniques nor template removal steps. All processes influence each other so it is important to work toward an integrated and cost-effective approach. The added complexity of 300 mm challenges equipment companies to integrate solutions together with our customers." "Electroplating will become particularly important for 300 mm technology, and Unitive's Xtreme wafer-level chip scale packaging offers the industry highest cost savings for manufacturing these large wafer sizes," commented Ken Donahue, CEO for Unitive. "The transition from 200 mm to 300 mm is a challenging project for bump foundries. The cooperation with SECAP allows us to directly transfer our technology to 300 mm with the same proven equipment suppliers from our 200 mm lines. In addition it will enable IDMs and foundries to qualify technology and equipment for 300 mm wafers." "We are very pleased to partner with SECAP and to participate in creating the leading world class 300 mm electroplated bumping line in our facility," added Daniel Teng, president of Unitive Taiwan. "We will emphasize our focus on volume manufacturing to rapidly bring viable solutions to the marketplace in response to our customers demand. While terms of the agreement were not disclosed, SECAP announced this will be a joint venture between Unitive and the equipment suppliers within SECAP. The equipment suppliers within SECAP will participate in the line with installation of their latest 300 mm equipment, including SECAP's newest member NEXX Systems. Unitive will invest in equipment, ancillary support equipment and infrastructure to support the line. According to the SECAP charter, SECAP will remain neutral to all packaging technologies; as such Unitive will not become a member of SECAP. The SECAP consortium does not intend to develop or market packaging technologies, since its purpose is to create a non-competitive environment for its customers. The consortium seeks to offer a new and powerful kind of partnership to customers. With wafer-level packaging being a new technology, it requires a strong infrastructure. All companies within the consortium will remain independent, marketing their own solutions in their established business environment. About SECAP About Unitive, Inc. |