Semiconductor International is No More

Semiconductor International is shutting down. Its web site will close on April 30, 2010. Those who'd like to keep its nice image sensor-related articles have little time to save them in private place. Some recent interesting articles are:

Philip Garrou series on 3D packaging, including the recent article on 3D integration stress management talking about larger-diameter TSVs causing large mobility changes in silicon because of large deformation and shear stress. (Source: Synopsys):

Alother Philip's article talks about the recent trends in TSV technology and packaging. Generally, The 3D panel on IMAPS 2007 conference was in complete agreement that the 3D IC market has evolved into two main segments:

• (1) vias middle either Cu or W and
• (2) vias last from backside Cu (see below)
• Anything else will be niche.

Prismark revealed their 2014 market projection of 3.2M TSV wafers consisting of

Application 3-D      % of Appl
Image Sensors         90
Rf/SiP                     15
MEMS                     20
Logic                      <1
DRAM                       7
Other memory          1

Semiconductor International used to be a place where Chipworks' Dick James published many reverse engineering findings, such as this one: DSLR Image Sensor Innovation – Who Is Challenging Canon and Nikon’s lead?, from September 11, 2009.

It's a pity that this wealth of information is going to disappear by the end of this month.