Workshop Report
2005 IEEE European Systems Packaging Workshop
Conference Dates: January 31 -- February 2, 2005
Location: Park Inn Hotel - Alexanderplatz, Berlin Germany
General Chairs: Christine Kallmayer and Rolf Aschenbrenner (Fraunhofer IZM)
Workshop Objectives:
The theme of a Systems Packaging workshop is to view all types
of packaged electronics from a global perspective with emphasis
on the attributes of the overall technical system: their choices
and challenges. This includes the product specifications, system
architecture, technologies chosen, electrical performance, power
design and thermal management.
Workshop Summary:
The workshop was announced with 30 presentations including 5 keynote
presentations and was organized into 5 sessions:
I. Ambient Intelligence
II. Biotechnology and Biomedical Technologies
III. Photonics and Interconnect Technology
IV. High Performance Computing
V. Micro and Nano-technology Heterogeneous System Integration.
A unique aspect of this workshop is that there was no call for papers; each speaker was invited because she or he is an expert in their respective subject.
About 59 participants from 12 different European countries (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, England, France, Ireland, UK, Switzerland, Norway) and non-European countries (USA, Japan, Korea) registered for the workshop.
The program and most of the PowerPoint presentations delivered at the workshop can be seen at the Technical Committee on Systems Packaging web page at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/cpmt/tc14/E05program.html
Keynote Speaker(s):
**Evan Davidson presented in his talk, "The History of Electronic
Packaging," an overview of the entire 100 years of packaging
used at the board and component levels. He finished with an outlook
for future technology directions.
**Werner Weber (Infineon) discussed in "Ambient Intelligence - Industrial Research on a Visionary Concept" his vision of the "disappearing computer", a powerful concept of the computer absorbed/imbedded in every day apparatus/personal items. The consequence of this vision is the effort not only to miniaturize the electronics but also to make them self sufficient by including the power generation and rectification along with transmitters and RFIDs in the packages.
**Robert Guernsey gave a very impressive outlook in his presentation, "Current View of Package Technology Opportunities in the 45 nm Silicon Generation," for the future technology trends including the key messages that passive power is approaching active power and cooling technology cannot support much more frequency scaling. As a consequence, we will see the end of frequency scaling resulting in an increase of integration on chip (multi-cores, multi-threading, multi-fabrics).
** Herbert Reichl from Fraunhofer IZM/Technical University of Berlin predicted in his talk "Hetero-system Integration Technologies: Challenges & Choices" system requirements for new applications with integrated electrical and non-electrical (sensor, actuator) functions. The hetero-system functionality can be considerably enlarged by the integration of mechanical, optical and/or biological functions. The applications that the EU is focusing on are: auto, mobile communication, life sciences, smart homes, wearables, RFID, and bio-interfaces.
Highlights of the Conference
Session 1
In Session 1, challenging packaging technologies were described for smart cards, flex technologies, electronics in textiles and wireless temperature sensors. The requirements for micropower delivery were also discussed.
Michael Huber highlighted in his presentation that the development of new materials for flip-chip technology and that the optimization of the production process led to the use of these technologies for smart cards and RFIDs.
Jan Vanfletern discussed interesting trends for smart highly integrated flex technologies; including: resistors, capacitors, RF components and ultra-thin chips using a flex laminate technology.
Special packaging challenges were discussed and shown for special applications by Torsten Linz for integrated microelectronics in textiles.
Robby Rochlitzer presented an electronic system design for a wireless temperature sensor that works autonomously and is connected via an infrared sensor to a PC.
Cian Ó Mathúna introduced ambient systems in the context of a range of potential applications and associated micro-sensor module system architectures and power budgets.
Session 2
In Session 2, Thomas Velten, Peter Laitenberger, Robert Dickinson and Graeme Maxwell focused on the special demands for biochip and biosensor packaging. This is a very special area for packaging technology challenges. Here, not only is the size extremely small and the need for low power electronics crucial but they also shared some of the requirements for high-end computing namely, reliability and hermeticity.
Session 3
Session 3 focused on optical interconnect technology, including optical waveguides, ink-jet based optical element manufacturing techniques, optical-electrical comparison/crossover and optical chip assembly technologies.
Elmar Griese outlined in his presentation "Optical Interconnections on PCBs: Fundamentals - Technology - Design" the essential features of waveguide technology including various manufacturing methods (embossing, laser-write and photolithography).
Padraig Hughes included in his presentation many aspects of advanced packaging technologies.
Hermann Oppermans talk mostly focused on a AuSn bonding process for optical sub-assemblies or optical ICs.
Marc Taubenblatt's talk's focus was on high-end computing that
typically requires thousands of off node/module interconnect channels
and many Tbps of information flow.
Session 4
In Session 4, high-end computer solutions were described for IBM, Fujitsu and Hitachi systems. Intel's presentation focused on power integrity in high-speed package design.
Hubert Harrer gave a very informative and complete presentation on the packaging technology and attributes of the IBM z-990 mainframe system.
Michael Fisher gave a comprehensive explanation of the requirements and packaging challenges and attributes associated with the IBM mid-range AIX/Linux p-Series Model 570 server.
Burkhard Steinmacher-Burow provided striking graphics and a description of the capability and structure of the IBM Blue Gene/ L Supercomputer and stressed the new paradigm that such an architecture creates.
Haruhiko Yamamoto-san (Fujitsu) presented the system configuration, packaging, and cooling aspects for high-performance server computers using the PRIMEPOWER HPC2500 as an example of a high-end Unix server series.
William Samaras from Intel discussed power integrity in high-speed package design for top-of-the-line microprocessors.
Hiroshi Go-san (Hitachi) presented the model J1 of their SR11000 supercomputer system. He provided a lot of interesting technical system information.
Session 5
In Session 5, various systems-in-a-package were described showing
different product driven packaging solutions.
Klaus Pressel (Infineon) talked about "Experiences &
Trends for System-in-a-Package" and kicked off a discussion
on silicon carriers.
Erik Jung (IZM) introduced "Hetero-System-Integration" using wafer level assembly for systems-in-a-package realizations.
Charlotte Gillot of IMEC presented "Wafer Level Encapsulation for RF MEMs" in hermetically sealed cavities using only standard IC manufacturing technologies at the wafer level.
Chul Soon Park (Korean Information & Technology Univ.) focused his presentation on the packaging solution for a compact and low cost radio system in "A System-in-a-Package Integration of a 60 GHz Radio Transmitter For Next Generation WLAN Applications." .
Marc de Samber (Philips) introduced in his presentation "Technology Development for SiP" a silicon based technology and a metal-flex based technology that can be used for more complicated SiP applications.
"Team Building" Sessions
One of the highlights of the workshop was a three-hour tour of the sights of East and West Berlin. We had an informative guide who explained the history of the city as she pointed out the different points-of-interest. Stops at the Brandenberg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and Museum Island gave us all a chance to interact and ask questions.
At the conclusion of the workshop, most of the attendees went on a field trip to the modern facilities at Fraunhofer IZM to learn more about their plethora of advanced projects. It was a very informative experience and we all are most grateful to IZM for organizing the workshop and for being such gracious hosts.
This workshop summary has been submitted by Thomas Winkel and Evan Davidson.