Absolics awarded US$75 million CHIPS funds for glass substrates
The Department of Commerce has agreed to provide Absolics Inc. (Covington, Florida) with up to US$75 million under the CHIPS and Science Act to build a glass substrates chiplet packaging factory.
Absolics is an 80.6 percent owned affiliate company of Korea’s SKC semiconductor chemicals and materials company. It was founded in 2021. The company has invested $240 million in a 12,000-square-meter facility with the goal of starting small volume production in the 2H24 with plans for high volume in 2026.
The proposed CHIPS investment would support the construction of a 120,000 square-foot facility in Covington, Georgia, to develop substrates for use in semiconductor advanced packaging. The move would create 1,000 construction jobs and 200 manufacturing and R&D jobs the DoC said.
Glass substrates are likely to prove a key part in the adoption of advanced packaging technology. They are used to support die to die interconnect interposers for multi-die packaging and can offer better flatness and thermal and mechanical stability than organic insulator substrates. Ultimately this allows higher chiplet density and smaller factors, which can, in turn, improve performance.
The advanced packaging substrates market is concentrated in Asia, and, because of this proposed CHIPS investment, U.S.-based companies will have an expanded domestic supply of glass substrates for advanced packaging. Intel, a pioneer of 3D advanced packaging, has started using glass substrates in R&D drawn from a 510mm by 515mm panel size.
Absolics will continue its R&D work with Georgia Tech, while also collaborating on projects related to the Department of Defense’s ‘State-of-the-Art’ Heterogeneous Integrated Packaging (SHIP) program in RF technologies.
“With the support of this proposed CHIPS funding, Absolics would be able to fully commercialize our pioneering glass substrate technology for use in high-performance computing and cutting-edge defense applications,” said Absolics CEO Jun Rok Oh in a statement issued by the Department of Commerce.
The agreement between Absolics and the DoC is in the form of a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT). A due diligence process is now being conducted and the terms contained in any final award documents may differ from the terms of the PMT.
Related links and articles:
News articles:
Intel tips glass substrate for chiplet packaging
Korea’s SKC moves in on US chiplet infrastructure
China forms its own chiplet standard amid isolation
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
