Perspectives From the Leading Edge

Philips spun out its semiconductor division and a lot of its debt as NXP in the fall of 2006. Ever since then, parts of the company have been sold off to lighten this debt load. Shortly after NXP announced the joint venture of its wireless division with STMicroelectronics, and the subsequent sale of this venture to ST-Ericsson, last summer, its 150 mm wafer plant in Caen, France, was put up for sale.

This NXP site has a history in 3-D passive integration, having successfully launched RF-SiP modules based on its so-called PICS passive integration technology in 2004. Several hundred million modules have reportedly been sold since then. Despite this success, NXP announced its plans to sell this site in 4Q08. For our previous discussion of this technology, see PFTLE "NXP Proposes Passive Integration in 3-D IC Stacks," April 13, 2008.

The new company, Ipdia, has now been created with support from the French Ministry of Economy, local government and €5 million from NXP and a group of VC firms. By the end of June, Ipdia will re-start the plant and have re-hired ~90 of the previous NXP staff. Ipdia has acquired the PICS passive integration technology as part of this deal. Next-generation 3D-SiP modules for various applications, including advanced LED modules, are now on the company's product roadmap.

Best of luck to Ipdia. Passive integration is an idea whose time has come (see P. Garrou, "Integrated Passives... Are We There Yet?", Semiconductor International, October 2005), and Europe has been leading the way. STMicro with its IPAD technology and Philips (then NXP and now Ipdia) with PICS have without question been the leaders, and PFTLE is glad to see PICS survive.

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