News
Oxford Lasers Awarded INTERPOSE-UK Collaborative Grant for Development of Next Generation Semiconductor Chip Integration
This Innovate UK's (UKRI's) Project Looks to Support UK Resilience in Semiconductor Manufacturing and Advanced Packaging Supply Chain
(Didcot, Oxfordshire, England) – Oxford Lasers proudly announces the successful award of a collaborative research and development (R&D) grant from Innovate UK, namely the INTERPOSE-UK project (advanced INTegratEd ciRcuit interPOsers for SEmiconductor packaging in the UK). In partnership with BAE Systems, the University of Southampton, and PRP Optoelectronics, Oxford Lasers will provide high-precision laser processing for the development of advanced features in glass interposers. Interposers are functional substrates that enable electrical connectivity between different semiconductor chips in advanced packaging applications.
The consortium’s goal is to mature the bespoke manufacture of glass and silicon-based interposers/redistribution layers and make them commercially available to a wide range of end-user applications beyond consumer products in support of the UK packaging supply chain. The intention is to offer an agile process flow, capable of supporting a variety of niche requirements and not a single restricted application offering.
Dr. Dimitris Karnakis, Senior Manager Technology, Oxford Lasers, stated “The UK government is investing in semiconductor manufacturing to ensure resilience and technological leadership in this area”. Dr. Karnakis continued “This nearly half a million pound grant will enable Oxford Lasers and the INTERPOSE-UK partners to advance next generation chip integration using glass and silicon passive interposers. For our part, Oxford Lasers will be developing new laser processing technologies to fabricate custom through glass vias that will enable advanced 2.5D and 3D heterogeneous integration”.
He highlighted the impact of the project’s results by commenting “Next generation heterogeneous chip integration through the use of bespoke interposers will have a substantial impact in every area involving semiconductors including high-performance computing, optoelectronics, power, aerospace, defence, sensors, and automotive, among others. These types of advances will strengthen UK competitiveness and enable UK manufacturing to keep pace by utilising advanced chip integration methods, hopefully opening doors to new markets and applications”.
Dr. Karnakis concluded “Oxford Lasers is excited to work on this project. We have nearly fifty years of experience resulting in an extensive library of capabilities in high-precision industrial laser micromachining over a wide range of materials and multiple industries including semiconductors. Along with our grant partners, we are ready to advance manufacturing techniques in this important global industry and will be particularly delighted to attract early adopters of this technology, contributing to strengthening UK resilience especially in critical sectors like defence”.
UKRI's Semiconductor Grant Programme
UKRI is investing a total of £11.5 million over 16 projects toward the development of the UK semiconductor manufacturing industry. View summaries of all UKRI semiconductor grant programmes including INTERPOSE-UK: UKRI’s project grant page.
INTERPOSE-UK and IMAPS-UK's New Workshop on Heterogeneous Integration of Interposers - 27th Nov 2024
In conjunction with IMAPS-UK (The UK chapter of the International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society), the INTERPOSE-UK grant collaborators, including Oxford Lasers, have developed a workshop to explore the topic of heterogeneous integration of glass and silicon interposers. The half-day workshop scheduled for 27th November 2024 at the British Motor Museum (Gaydon, Warwickshire, UK), conveniently precedes the iPower6 conference. Presentations from BAE Systems, Dynex Semiconductor, NCAB Group UK Ltd, PRP Optoelectronics and Inseto UK Ltd will cover the following topics:
- Introduction to heterogeneous integration – silicon and glass interposers
- Current packaging technology development – challenges and roadmap for high power
- Electronics manufacturing view on HDI and moving to smaller nodes
- An interposer case study
- Printed interposers
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