Panel-Level Packaging (FOPLP) and Glass Substrates are going to drive the next chapter in advanced packaging, with the market exceeding $8 Billion by 2030.
The AI & HPC Segments Want To Move Beyond Organic Substrates & Wafer Packages To Meet Their Growing Compute Needs, & That's Where Panel-level Packaging & Glass Substrates Come In
TSMC & Intel are the two major semiconductor firms that are accelerating next-gen glass core substrates for panel-level packages. These two technologies go hand in hand in powering the next generation of semiconductors and come with major advantages over traditional organic substrates and wafer-level packages.
The high compute demand is one of the major drivers of these technologies, and is expected to see major adoption in the coming years.
As per Counterpoint Research, the FOPLP (Fan-Out Panel Level Packaging) and Glass Substrate market is expected to exceed $8 billion by 2030, driven primarily by growing AI and HPC demand. This will be a big growth compared to the $650 million market that was reported for 2024.
The larger wafer footprint of FOPLP will lead to more compute and DRAM dies per wafer. This is one of the reasons why the demand for panel-level packaging will see a sharp increase by 2030, with an estimated share accounting to 45.6% in revenue. Furthermore, the use of glass substrate technology leads to higher interconnect density, improved thermal characteristics, and the large package sizes enabled with PLP.
Among the leading firms, TSMC is already fast-forwarding its CoPoS (Chip-on-Panel-on-Substrate) solution, which will first use standard organic substrates before moving to glass core substrates. It was reported that the use of glass core substrates will reduce costs by 30% and boost utilization rates for the wafer past 90%. Intel, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, ASE, and PTI are also expanding glass substrate and panel-level packaging technologies to meet future demands.
Image Source: Yole Group
Intel has been very vocal about glass substrates and panel-level packaging since it announced the technologies back in 2023. Intel partners are aiming for the commercialization of glass core substrates by the next three years.
“As package complexity continues to increase, glass substrates are gaining industry attention as a potential alternative to traditional organic substrates,” said Yoshio Tamura, Vice President of Research at Counterpoint Research. “Compared with organic materials, glass substrates offer advantages in interconnect density, dimensional stability and warpage control, supporting the development of next-generation chiplet-based architectures and large AI processors.”
via Counterpoint Research
Meanwhile, the East Asian markets will be the key regions for FOPLP Panel capacity by 2030. The three countries: Taiwan, China, and Japan, will be responsible for 84.8% of the global panel-level packaging capacity by 2030. Intel is expected to gain ground in the US with its Rio Rancho facility being set up as the prime glass core substrate and panel-level packaging hub on American soil.
With all the buzz surrounding these two next-gen packaging and substrate technologies, the industry still awaits the standardization of panel sizes, the consistency within the TGV (Through-Glass Via) interconnects, and manufacturing stability, which will play an important role in the road towards commercialization of glass core substrates and panel-level packaging.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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