South Korean Nepes launched the FoPLP chip packaging technology, which makes smartphone chips more compact and cheaper, reducing the cost of gadgets. Previously, the readiness to launch this technology announced in Samsung, but the competitors of the mobile giant were quicker.
Late Samsung.
Specializing in the production of semiconductors, South Korean Nepes became the first company in the world to commercialize the technology of packaging chips FoPLP.
FoPLP (fan-out panel level package) technology allows you to reduce the cost of chips, which along with displays and cameras are one of the most expensive components of smartphones, thereby reducing the cost of gadgets themselves.
As ZDnet writes, in this way, Nepes beat its "older" competitor, Samsung, which planned to put the FoPLP technology on stream in the second half of 2017.
At the end of 2016 g. Samsung has signed a contract with Qualcomm, which will use 10-nm FoPLP technology in its Snapdragon 835 chips (along with its own development - Samsung Exynos - they are equipped with Samsung Galaxy S8).
Subtlety of packaging.
FoPLP (Fan-out Panel Level Package) technology allows to increase the number of input and output pins in microchips and reduce the chip thickness. A particular advantage of the technology should be a reduction in the cost of the process of manufacturing chips.
In addition to supplying Samsung Electronics company Samsung Electro-Mechanics about their ambitions to enter the market of PLP-technology also announced the Japanese J-Device (investors - Amkor Technology and Toshiba).
For the first time the fan-out technology in the WLP package (wafer level package) was applied by the Taiwanese company TSMC in the manufacture of processors A10) for the Apple iPhone 7.
FoWLP also lowers the cost of placing a chip on the board, but is considered an outdated technology. Nepes became the first production that combined fan-out with PLP packaging - each of these technologies is considered more progressive in the microelectronic industry than fan-in and WLP.
In Nepes explained that they launched FoPLP technology in the interests of a certain company, whose name is not announced yet.
An anonymous company will supply analog semiconductors for smartphones starting in May 2017.. In Nepes also clarified that they are ready to go with their technology to the markets of manufacturers of smartphones in the US, China and Japan.
In the fight for cheap chips.
Competitive struggle for technologies that allow to reduce the cost of gadgets is being conducted between smartphone manufacturers not for the first year.
In particular, getting rid of the dependence of monopolists - chip manufacturers, companies strive to develop their own mobile processors. According to market participants, today, each manufacturer of Android devices, OEM, with the exception of Samsung and Huawei, is based on Qualcomm processors. In the case of patent problems or supply disruptions, the production line will be decelerated, and its own chip will allow to get rid of this threat to production.