Adaptive Clock Generation Module for DVFS and Droop Response
Sondrel warns that packaging lead time have dramatically increased from 8 to more than 50 weeks
Reading, UK – April 7, 2022 -- Just when the supply shortage of semiconductors seems to be easing, Sondrel is warning of an issue in the supply chain that may well cause unexpected delays to orders. In the initial stages of the Covid pandemic, packaging houses were badly hit by cancellation of orders and had to lay off staff or even close down. As silicon production surges, they are struggling to cope with the tsunami of orders especially as it takes time to build new facilities and train staff. The result of this is that the lead time for packaging has increased from 8-9 weeks to as much as 50 weeks or more.
Alaa Alani, Sondrel’s Head of Packaging, explained; “The sequence of booking the stages in the supply chain has completely changed. Previously the design would be finished and then sent off to be made into wafers, which still takes around 12 weeks. At the same time, the details for the packaging would be sent to the packaging company so that was ready before the silicon. The new timeline means that the packaging design has to be finished and booked 20 or more weeks before the final silicon design to ensure that the silicon and packaging come together at the right time.”
He went on to add that not being aware of this and planning accordingly could introduce a delay in the production of a chip by as much as 40 weeks. As Sondrel offers a complete turnkey ASIC design and manufacturing service, the company spotted this growing problem in the supply chain a while back and has devised a solution to start the SoC package planning and design by assigning die bumps and assigning their x/y coordinates relative to the die corner. Moving this stage to much earlier in the supply chain sequence avoids a massive and costly delay.
The bump locations are determined for each of the macros and PHYs as specified by the IP vendors using the floor plan and the SoC partitions’ locations. For hard macros such as PCIe, HDMI and others, the bumps locations are specified by their relative offset from the macro corner whereas in soft macros (e.g., DDR), it is based on a certain pattern and a minimum pitch used in the bump assignment.
Graham Curren, Sondrel’s founder and CEO, added; “Our reputation is based on mitigating the risk of a customer’s project by ensuring the quality of our design work and keeping our fingers on the pulse of every stage of the supply chain to identify and solve issues so that the chips are delivered on schedule.
Sondrel has a white paper ‘Early Bump Assignment Methodology for SoCs in Flip Chip BGA Packages’ that discusses this and is available at www.sondrel.com/solutions/white-papers.
Bumps & packaging
About Sondrel™
Founded in 2002, Sondrel is the trusted partner of choice for handling every stage of an IC's creation. Its award-winning define and design ASIC consulting capability is fully complemented by its turnkey services to transform designs into tested, volume-packaged silicon chips. This single point of contact for the entire supply chain process ensures low risk and faster times to market. Headquartered in the UK, Sondrel supports customers around the world via its offices in China, India, Morocco and North America. For more information, visit www.sondrel.com
|
Related News
- Alphawave Semi to Showcase Innovations and Lead Expert Panels on 224G, 128G PCIe 7.0, 32G UCIe, HBM 4, and Advanced Packaging Techniques at DesignCon 2025
- Sondrel announces CEO transition to lead next phase of growth
- Sondrel creates unique modelling flow software to cut ASIC modelling time from months to a few days
- Sondrel launches the fourth IP platform - SFA 350A - that delivers faster time to market for ADAS ASICs
- Overall GPU shipments increased 9.3% from last quarter, AMD increased 8% Nvidia increased 30%
Breaking News
- Equal1 advances scalable quantum computing with CMOS-compatible silicon spin qubit technology
- New Breakthroughs in China's RISC-V Chip Industry
- JEDEC® and Industry Leaders Collaborate to Release JESD270-4 HBM4 Standard: Advancing Bandwidth, Efficiency, and Capacity for AI and HPC
- BrainChip Gives the Edge to Search and Rescue Operations
- ASML targeted in latest round of US tariffs
Most Popular
- Cadence to Acquire Arm Artisan Foundation IP Business
- Siemens to accelerate customer time to market with advanced silicon IP through new Alphawave Semi partnership
- Intel Announces Strategic Investment by Silver Lake in Altera
- Andes Technology Celebrates 20 Years with New Logo and Headquarters Expansion
- AMD Achieves First TSMC N2 Product Silicon Milestone
![]() |
E-mail This Article | ![]() |
![]() |
Printer-Friendly Page |