SMIC, China's biggest chip manufacturing company, is now looking to advanced packaging, given how NVIDIA and others have leveraged it to scale performance beyond the norms of Moore's Law.
SMIC Plans to "Strengthen" Cooperation With OSAT Partners, In Order to Effectively Develop Packaging Solutions
Advanced packaging has been a key resource for chip manufacturers to scale performance significantly over the past few years. Scaling laws have pushed beyond the traditional transistor-shrinking approach towards newer techniques, and one way to do so is to bring innovation to backend semiconductors, such as TSMC's CoWoS. According to a DigiTimes report, SMIC is now exploring advanced packaging by establishing a dedicated "research organization in Shanghai" that will focus on developing key technologies to help the Chinese chip giant move beyond Moore's Law.
This isn't the first time SMIC is diving into advanced packaging, as, according to previous reports, the chip giant has had a joint venture established with JCET Group, but the company's portfolio isn't mainstream; rather, it focuses on wafer bumping, wafer‑level packaging (WLP), chip‑scale packaging (CSP), conventional packages, and testing. SMIC works with a number of OSAT partners, but the company doesn't have a viable 2.5D/3D packaging solution, similar to TSMC's CoWoS or Intel's Foveros.
Of course, SMIC isn't going to 'spawn' a backend product overnight, as it requires ultra-high-precision equipment, high-end interposers, and a mature ecosystem. Based on the report, the aim of SMIC's research venture is to "strengthen coordination between wafer manufacturing and packaging and testing operations", which likely indicates that the Chinese chip giants look to strengthen their cooperation with external OSAT partners. But, there's no doubt that advanced packaging is a prospect for foundries that is hard to ignore.
TSMC's CoWoS and its derivatives are known to be under severe supply constraints, and even Intel's EMIB solutions are gaining traction, mainly because the advantages of advanced packaging are compelling for several HPC customers. China's chip race is hindered by the fact that it has hit a roadblock in terms of 'shrinking transistors', and while advanced packaging won't open up a huge prospect for it in the shorter term, it could be a worthwhile investment.
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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