Advanced packaging equipment is the cornerstone of industrial development. For a long time, China has faced the challenge of foreign technology blockade in this field. Fortunately, in 2024, domestic equipment manufacturers have achieved major breakthroughs in multiple key equipment fields through unremitting efforts and innovation, and have also made important progress in multiple key equipment types in the field of advanced packaging equipment, injecting strong impetus into the independent and controllable development of the industry.
Co-develop of deep etching tools between SMIC and Naura.
For example, in terms of etching equipment, SMIC's deep silicon plasma etcher has performed outstandingly in the research and development and mass production of through-silicon via etching, providing a precise etching process for advanced packaging; NAURA DSE200 series etcher can achieve high aspect ratio silicon etching of up to 50:1, with excellent sidewall morphology control and etching selectivity, meeting the high-precision etching requirements of advanced packaging.
LeadMicro ALD tools supporting multiple thin film process in Advanced Packaging.
In the field of coating equipment, Microguide Nano's iTomic® HiK series atomic layer deposition coating system provides strong support for customers' thin film processes such as high dielectric constant (High-k) gate oxide layers, MIM capacitor insulation layers, and TSV dielectric layers.
Jingsheng Electromechanical thinning tools improving
In terms of wafer thinning equipment, the wgp12t thinning and polishing equipment independently developed by Jingsheng Electromechanical has successfully achieved stable processing of 12-inch 30μm ultra-thin wafers, effectively overcoming the difficulties in ultra-thin wafer processing and enhancing my country's international competitiveness in this field.
Looks like CFMEE and others domestic DWL tools is becoming a real competitor to mask lithography tools in advanced packaging offering more flexibility but SMEE still have the advantage of throughput , overlay and resolution.
In the field of direct write lithography, Xingji Micro-Equipment's equipment has achieved a line width as low as 2um. The processes involved include vertical wiring TSV, horizontal wiring Bumping RDL, etc., and it meets the requirements of advanced packaging customers with flexible digital masks and high yield. Currently, many devices have been delivered to clients, and the stability and functionality of the product have been verified.
In addition, under the dual influence of the rapid growth of the domestic advanced packaging market and the uncertainty brought to the market and supply chain by geopolitical tensions, some foreign companies have also begun to vigorously deploy in the domestic market in recent years.
Foreign companies localizing in China to avoid losing costumers to domestic competitors.
For example, ASMPT Semiconductor Division established an independent entity in China, Ao Xinming, since its establishment in China in 2023, relying on ASMPT's technical support and experience, has made full use of the local supply chain, R&D processes and talent resources to gradually introduce advanced packaging products and technologies into China, providing Chinese customers with "localization", "high quality" and "market-competitive" overall solutions to promote the development of China's semiconductor industry. In 2024, Ao Xinming opened a research and development center in Shanghai Zhangjiang Lingang Science and Technology Port to promote the localization of large chip, memory chip and flip chip packaging technology, and realize the introduction of some IP and local manufacturing of mounting and bonding equipment. Local R&D personnel accounted for 12%, demonstrating the company's strategic upgrade of local R&D capabilities, as well as its determination to deepen the Chinese market and solve the challenges of semiconductor back-end equipment supply chain demand.
Xpeedic packging EDA tools Upgraded for faster and better Chiplet simulations.
Xinhe Semiconductor's EDA products have been upgraded to "integrated system EDA", and SI/PI/multi-physics field analysis EDA solutions for next-generation electronic systems have been released, including a number of new products for chiplet advanced packaging and board-level systems, signal integrity, power integrity, electromagnetic simulation, heat and stress and other EDA analysis platforms, providing key technical support for chiplet system process collaborative optimization; Yibo Semiconductor has successfully developed the domestically first and industry-leading new 2.5D chiplet packaging technologies COORS-R and COORS-V based on its own patents.
Multiple Domestic companies offering Chiplet related IP including Verisilicon.
Xinli Intelligent officially released the self-developed chiplet Die-to-Die interconnection IP (hereinafter referred to as CL-Link) chip, which was successfully taped out and lit up at one time, bringing more diverse and flexible interconnection solutions to the construction of computing infrastructure in the era of artificial intelligence; Kuixin Technology has achieved a number of self-developed IP technology testing results and reached a strategic cooperation with South Korea's AD Technology; Arctic Xiongxin's "Qiming 935A" chip was successfully lit up and completed functional testing to meet the automotive-grade mass production standards, and the company has received further investment for the development of the next generation of functional chiplets. Its "Qiming 935" universal HUB chiplet and "Ursa Major" AI chiplet have been successfully taped out and obtained automotive-grade dual certification. With its one-stop chip design service and modular design and split integration mass production experience of thousands of advanced process chips,
VeriSilicon has successfully designed and mass-produced high-performance computing chips based on chiplet architecture for customers, targeting data center and automotive applications. This enables VeriSilicon to flexibly configure IP combinations of different processes or production lines according to customer needs to complete complex chiplet designs
Through Silicon Glass Vias Materials and equipment progressing nicely.
In terms of glass substrates, t
he first 8.6-generation OLED glass substrate product jointly developed by China National Building Material Glass New Materials Research Institute Group Co., Ltd. and Bengbu Zhongguang Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. was successfully launched; Rainbow Co., Ltd.'s first domestically produced ultra-high-generation substrate glass production line in Xianyang was successfully ignited and put into production, and the pool furnace of the 8.5-generation + substrate glass production line construction project was ignited, which greatly improved my country's glass substrate production capacity and technical level.
In terms of TGV technology and equipment, t
he first domestic TGV board-level packaging fully automated production line of Triassic (Guangdong) Technology Co., Ltd. was put into operation in Songshan Lake, Dongguan, with an estimated annual output of 30,000 510*515mm glass packaging substrates, which integrates key links such as handling and transmission, and is equipped with important equipment such as high-speed laser induction; Zunheng Semiconductor has developed new electroplating technology and equipment to achieve high-diameter ratio electroplating, providing a feasible metallization route for TGV adapter boards;
Deer Laser's TGV laser micro-hole equipment has received small batch orders, and its micro-hole processing technology has excellent performance in depth-to-diameter ratio and aperture control. Matrix Multi-Tech has completed the construction of a prototype PVD equipment for high-aspect ratio TGV seed layer metallization, and is conducting proofing tests for a number of potential customers.
