Applied Materials, Inc. unveiled a new semiconductor manufacturing systems that boost the performance of advanced logic as well as memory chips foundational to AI computing.
The new products target three critical areas in the race to deliver ever more powerful AI chips: leading-edge logic including Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors, high-performance DRAM including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and advanced packaging to create highly integrated systems-in-a-package that optimize chip performance, power consumption and cost.
To get the best performance and energy efficiency, modern GPUs and high-performance computing (HPC) chips are using advanced packaging techniques that stack multiple chiplets together. One emerging approach is hybrid bonding, which uses direct copper-to-copper contacts (with dielectric layers) instead of traditional solder bumps. This lets chips communicate faster, use less power, and reduces cost.
As chip packaging becomes more complex, executing hybrid bonding at scale grows more difficult. To help speed up hybrid bonding in advanced logic and memory chips, Applied Materials teamed up with BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. (Besi) to develop the Kinex™ Bonding system — the industry’s first fully integrated die-to-wafer hybrid bonder.
This system combines Applied’s wafer and chip processing expertise with Besi’s precision in die placement, interconnects, and assembly, delivering high bonding accuracy and speed in a single platform.
The Kinex system connects all the critical hybrid bonding process steps into one system, offering several major advantages compared to non-integrated approaches:
- Better management of complex multi-die packages because of superior die-level tracing
- Smaller interconnect pitches enabled by high-accuracy bonding and clean, controlled environment
- Improved bonding consistency and quality through precise control over the queue time between hybrid bonding process steps
- Faster overlay measurement and drift detection achieved by integrated, in-line metrology
Executive Statement
According to Dr. Prabu Raja, President of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials, as chips become more complex, Applied is focused on driving materials engineering breakthroughs to provide the performance and power-efficiency improvements needed to scale AI. They are collaborating earlier and deeper with their customers to co-develop solutions that accelerate chipmaker roadmaps and enable major device inflections in logic, memory and advanced packaging.