Semiconductor Technology

Semiconductor-based product development

For the production of a custom product, even with small quantities by means of semiconductor technology, several competences are required, which are covered by specialized companies.

1. Technology Scouting
2. Chip Design
3. Chip Manufacturing
4. Chip Packaging
5. Chip Assembly on Printed Circuit Boards
6. Housing & Interfaces
7. Soft- & Firmware

Using the example of the development activities of a customer-specific radiation detector, the phases and possible service performances of SIP GmbH can be described by way of example.

 

Phase 1: Technology Scouting

For the production of a complex semiconductor-based product, often several competences or specialized companies are necessary. The identification as well as the evaluation of the potential companies is a specialized achievement of the SIP GmbH, which is certainly unique in the area of the semiconductor industry.

 

Phase 2: Chip Design

Chip design translates all of the application-specific requirements into digital circuit blocks, and the logic is created and wired as functional blocks through Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools.

The digital information of the chip design is broken down computer-aided on the individual lithography or mask levels of the semiconductor processing.

This data is transmitted to the chip manufacturer (Foundry).

The communication between the customer and the selected chip design company is taken over by the SIP GmbH.

 

Phase 3: Chip Manufacturing

Chip foundries are used to manufacture custom chips.

SIP GmbH and the corresponding design companies have contacts to all important chip foundries worldwide.

Depending on the technical requirements, the corresponding potential foundries are selected and requested. The commitment of a foundry to produce a requested process depends not only on the technical requirements, but also on the volume of the customer-specific product to be manufactured. For “low volume products” often a design company must be found, which can provide sufficient volume by bundling additional customers.

This requirement is considered in the “Technology Scouting” process of SIP GmbH.

 

Phase 4: Chip Packaging

For further product integration, silicon chips must either be further processed into a system-in-package (SiP) or directly provided with a package with electrical connection capability.

For both package variants, there are specialized companies that are known to SIP GmbH.

 

Phase 5: Chip Assembly on Printed Circuit Boards

To connect the packaged chips with the outside world, a “Printed Circuit Board” (PCB) is necessary, with which the chips z. B. by a “ball grid array” (BGA) are applied and connected.

Depending on the product requirement, other components such as commercially available FPGAs, DRAMs, FLASHes, Clocks, Electrical & Optical Transceivers, and Passive Impedance Passives can be attached to the PCB and wired.

 

Phase 6: Housing & Interfaces

The chip assembly is connected to the outside world (external computer) via specific “connectors” that meet the requested data rate and mechanically protected by a housing, with custom flange components.

Other interfaces that need to be considered are power or voltage sources, possible water cooling, and vacuum requirements for gasket and pumping requirements.

 

Phase 7: Software & Firmware

All components are controlled by a firmware whose code is usually stored in an FPGA. Next, the software must be created for the specific application. This is provided by the company, which performs the entire chip integration.

The application-specific firmware requires close collaboration with the customer in order to translate the exact customer requirements into the desired product functionality.