Date: 13/03/2011

Germany's academia and companies partner to develop 3D System-in-package for RF

The Germany based Fraunhofer Institute, Dresden Institute for Integrated Circuits, SYMEO GmbH, Siemens AG, the Institute of Technical Electronics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and Infineon Technologies AG are working on a new project called "V3DIM" to develop innovative, highly integrated 3D System-in-Package (SiP) solutions for systems in the extremely high frequency range of 40 to 100 GHz, the so-called millimeter-wave range. V3DIM is abbreviation for "design for vertical 3D system integration in millimeter-wave applications". These partners from industry, science and research are funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to explore how innovative 3D integration technologies can be exploited in semiconductor chip and package manufacturing. Their aim is to miniaturize, increase performance (including power loss, signal integrity, noise and cost), energy efficiency and reliability of mm wave semiconductor ICs. This project is managed by Infineon Technologies AG and is scheduled for completion at the end of August 2013.

The five partners to find out new design methods, models and SiP technology components for vertical 3D system integration in the sphere of millimeter-wave applications. The joint effort is also intended to cut development time for 3D SiP designs by 1/3.

V3DIM's overall project cost amounts up to Euro 6.8 million, and approximately 40 percent of it is funded by the three industry project partners. In addition, the research project will receive BMBF support of about Euro 4.1 million over a three-year term under the "Information and Communications Technology 2020" (ICT 2020) program as part of the German Federal Government's High-Tech Strategy.