A new consortium of 10 American and Japanese semiconductor materials and equipment companies has formed to advance back-end chip packaging technologies.
Called US-JOINT, the consortium R&D will take place at a new center in Union City, California, with co-investment from the partners. The construction of cleanrooms and equipment installation will begin this year and the facility is expected to be fully operational in 2025.
The introduction of US-JOINT was announced at this week’s 2024 SEMICON WEST.
Back-end processing of semiconductors has traditionally been in Asia. Having this capability domestically will help to advance the technology and solve technical issues, especially where other U.S. consortiums do not cover enough advancements in substrate, interposer and fabrication of the package.
The companies in the consortium include:
- Azimuth
- KLA Corp.
- Kulicke & Soffa
- Moses Lake Industries
- MEC
- ULVAC
- NAMICS
- TOK
- TOWA
- Resonac
US-JOINT is an open consortium and will collaborate to verify the latest requirements for semiconductor packaging of advanced devices and validate new concepts in development. The members will also work to capture market needs in real-time and accelerate R&D of materials and equipment technologies.
“Today’s rapidly expanding next-generation semiconductors for generative AI and autonomous driving require new approaches to advanced packaging technologies, such as 2.5D and 3D 1,” said Hidenori Abe, executive director of Electronics Business Headquarters at Resonac. “In recent years, major semiconductor manufacturers and fabless companies in Silicon Valley, including GAFAM 2, are designing semiconductors in-house and creating new concepts in back-end packaging one after another. This is where the US-JOINT consortium can contribute significantly with our leading technology in materials and equipment on-shore in the U.S.”
SEMICON West takes place this week in San Francisco, California.
