Sultans of shrink pack chips into smart devices
The latest chapter in the miniaturisation of increasingly smart consumer electronics lies in the hands of chip packagers, an indispensable group of firms whose role in the supply chain alone is worth $27 billion. Packagers like Taiwan's Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE) receive chips from manufacturers and prepare them for device assemblers by, for instance, encasing them in metal and resin. The advent of wearable devices, particularly Apple Inc's
Apple Watch and its dozens of chips, pushed packagers to devise innovative ways of cramming ever-more communications, graphics and location chips into the tiniest of spaces. To serve this market, which researcher IDC expects to grow 173 percent to $17.1 billion in 2015, ASE and rivals like Taiwan's Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd and Amkor Technology Inc of the United States have come up with an assembly process known as System-in-Package (SiP).
"SiP bundles a ton of components into one simple plug-n-play, almost like a Lego block," said Taipei-based semiconductor analyst Randy Abrams at Credit Suisse. In SiP, the packager finds the optimal arrangement for multiple chips, akin to solving a three-dimensional jigsaw. The tightly packed formation allows for easier communication between chips, yielding quicker, more energy-efficient devices. "The SiP inside the Apple Watch was unprecedented," Vice President Jim Morrison of analysis firm Chipworks told Reuters. Chipworks found as many as 40 chips in the hermetically sealed pod, more than double any other package it had seen before.
ASE aims to be a one-stop-shop for firms planning to stuff dozens of chips into wearables such as wristbands, but also into home appliances and even light bulbs as more and more goods go online - a concept known as the Internet of Things (IoT).
"We spent up to seven years developing the design" of SiP, said ASE Chief Operating Officer Tien Wu, who targets riches promised by an IoT market IDC values at $1.7 trillion by 2020. ASE commands a leading 19 percent of the packaging market.
Apple Watch and its dozens of chips, pushed packagers to devise innovative ways of cramming ever-more communications, graphics and location chips into the tiniest of spaces. To serve this market, which researcher IDC expects to grow 173 percent to $17.1 billion in 2015, ASE and rivals like Taiwan's Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd and Amkor Technology Inc of the United States have come up with an assembly process known as System-in-Package (SiP).
"SiP bundles a ton of components into one simple plug-n-play, almost like a Lego block," said Taipei-based semiconductor analyst Randy Abrams at Credit Suisse. In SiP, the packager finds the optimal arrangement for multiple chips, akin to solving a three-dimensional jigsaw. The tightly packed formation allows for easier communication between chips, yielding quicker, more energy-efficient devices. "The SiP inside the Apple Watch was unprecedented," Vice President Jim Morrison of analysis firm Chipworks told Reuters. Chipworks found as many as 40 chips in the hermetically sealed pod, more than double any other package it had seen before.
ASE aims to be a one-stop-shop for firms planning to stuff dozens of chips into wearables such as wristbands, but also into home appliances and even light bulbs as more and more goods go online - a concept known as the Internet of Things (IoT).
"We spent up to seven years developing the design" of SiP, said ASE Chief Operating Officer Tien Wu, who targets riches promised by an IoT market IDC values at $1.7 trillion by 2020. ASE commands a leading 19 percent of the packaging market.
Last Update: August 01, 2015 01:21