As the global demand for AI and high-performance computing chips grows, the demand for advanced packaging technology continues to heat up, and the market's dependence on TSMC's CoWoS production line has also reached its peak. Since TSMC's CoWoS production capacity is currently mainly contracted by NVIDIA, AMD and large cloud customers, the scheduling flexibility and space left for new customers is very limited.
This has forced other major chip manufacturers to actively evaluate and lay out diversified packaging routes.Many technology giants, including Apple and Qualcomm, are actively requiring experience in packaging technologies such as Intel EMIB and Foveros in their new job openings.
Apple is recruiting DRAM packaging engineers, and its skill requirements clearly list familiarity with multiple advanced packaging technologies such as CoWoS, EMIB, SoIC, and PoP.
At the same time, the product management director position of Qualcomm Data Center Division also lists Intel EMIB as an important professional skill.
Intel CEO and senior executives have emphasized many times in the past that their Foveros and EMIB technologies have attracted the interest of many customers and have the ability to mass-produce.
Among them, EMIB is a 2.5D package that uses embedded silicon bridges to connect multiple chips to achieve horizontal integration without the need for a large silicon interposer. It has the advantages of lower cost and excellent heat dissipation.
Foveros is a 3D vertical stacking package that performs heterogeneous vertical stacking through through silicon vias (TSV). It is suitable for mixing chips of different processes and has the characteristics of high density and power saving.Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake all use this technology.
TSMC's CoWoS is a 2.5D large-scale silicon interposer package. It is currently the solution that supports the most HBM stacks and is also the mainstream technology in the market mainly used by AI GPUs. Its advantages include high maturity and large production line scale.
Market participants pointed out that Apple and Qualcomm clearly named Intel technology this time, which is regarded as a signal that the industry is beginning to move towards a diversified layout. It also indicates that in the future, advanced packaging may gradually move from relying solely on CoWoS to a "dual supply model."
