Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) held its 2009 technical symposium this past Tuesday in San Jose with the theme, “Collaborate to Innovate.” Although I wasn’t there, I did get a complete debriefing from my colleague Jan Vardaman, CEO of TechSearch Inc., who was on hand.

Depending on your frame of reference, there were many things to be interested in. Despite our current economic times, TSMC vowed to continue spending on R&D. They are looking to add 300 R&D engineers to their current 1200, and add 90 design engineers to the current stable of 600. They plan to equip and ramp up their 40 nm fab line this year.

Closer to home, they described plans to develop a new CMOS image sensor (CIS) process for 2, 5 and 8 MP designs, and reconfirmed their plans for 3-D IC. Through-silicon vias (TSVs) first appeared on the TSMC roadmap last May (PFTLE, “Foundry TSVs Are a Comin’ – TSMC Makes Their Play for a Bigger Portion of the Pie,” May 2, 2008; “TSMC Roadmap, DRAM Timing and Sematech Highlights,” Oct. 27, 2008).

Vardaman indicates that the current TSMC silicon roadmap shows that PT140 (backside TSV for CIS) is available on 140 µm pitch now, and 60 µm pitch will be available later this year. More interestingly, it looks like i-T30 and i-T17 — vias “middle” (before BEOL) — at 40 and then 17 µm pitch will be available starting in Q2 2011. To meet this timeline, 300 mm equipment is arriving now and should be ready (not qualified, I presume) by this June. This is being picked up by some of the news wires as “TSMC to Offer 3-D Technology in June,” but I think my interpretation of the equipment being installed by June and the process being “offered” (meaning qualified and ready to produce) 21-24 months later (i.e., Q2 2011) makes more sense. We’ll try to confirm this interpretation through contacts in Taiwan.

“This lack of fab-processed TSV availability was really beginning to slow down all 3-D integration advances," Vardaman commented. "This reconfirmation by TSMC of their intentions and a firming up of their timelines should give everyone involved in the infrastructure a boost.”

Vardaman stands by her more conservative 3-D IC marketing numbers, saying, “This latest announcement assures us that 3-D IC will be happening, but we stand behind our more conservative adoption roadmap. These things just don’t happen as quickly as some would like.”

For all the latest on 3-D IC integration, stay linked to PFTLE.......................