Samsung and Qualcomm plan 2.1D chip packaging alliance

Samsung and Qualcomm are reportedly forming a 2.1D Packaging Alliance aimed at giving customers access to advanced chip packaging that connects silicon dies with bridge technology. The companies are developing an organic bridge that would hold two chips together and interconnect multiple chips using materials commonly found in traditional PCBs, including organic polymer materials such as epoxy and copper wiring.

The organic bridge relies on redistribution layers, or RDL, made from multiple layers of fine circuitry with very small wires and spacing. Samsung is expected to manufacture the 2.1D package using multiple RDLs inside a flip-chip ball grid array package. The target line width and spacing for the organic bridge is 1.5 to 2 micrometers each, with via sizes of 4 to 5 micrometers. Die-to-die pattern density is targeted at 500 to 1,000 per millimeter, approaching the packaging density of silicon-based bridge methods such as Intel’s Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge.