A two-year business relationship that began at a business conference led to Wednesday’s news that RTI International is partnering with an Indiana-based semiconductor firm to develop new packaging technology that enables smaller, faster groups of semiconductor chips. Using a proprietary “Quilt” concept, RTI could soon enable “More Than Moore” devices.

Moore refers to Moore’s Law, which refers to limits on semiconductor capabilities. And RTI already has a strong record in bringing new semiconductor technology to market.

Delivering “More Than Moore” capabilities is the slogan of Indiana Integrated Circuits, or IIC. The South Bend, Ind.-based firm, which has a close working relationship with the University of Notre Dame, is RTI’s partner for the chip technology known as “Quilt Packaging.” 

The proprietary technology enables the assembly of semiconductors that are dissimilar such as analog and digital to be assembled, or quilted together. RTI believes the process can lead to development of next-generation defense and mobile devices. Chips – not just silicon –  are aligned on their edges and QP results in “extremely wide bandwidth performance” that improves power efficiency, the company says.

Revolutionary solution?

Chip packaging and interconnect solutions based on QP are so efficient that the company says it “promises to revolutionize system design by allowing heterogeneous integration of various substrates and processes while delivering monolithic-like device performance.”

IIC already has at least one major development project underway: Sandia National Labs is developing a supercomputing application of “QP,” as the technology is called. According to IIC the process projects “significant power savings that are attributable to QP’s low-loss interconnect” within the multi-chip structure.

“IIC and RTI first encountered each other at a microelectronics conference where RTI was exhibiting in March 2011,” Dr. John Lannon, director of microsystem integration and packaging at RTI, told WRALTechWire. “We saw potential applications for IIC’s technology and began a business relationship.”

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the benefits could be huge if RTI and IIC demonstrate that the Quilt process delivers on its promise of smaller, faster, more power chips.

“The trend in the electronics industry is to try to make technology smaller yet more powerful, which requires increasingly higher levels of chip integration and packaging” Lannon explained in the partnership announcement. “IIC’s Quilt Packaging technology provides another innovative solution for reducing interconnect lengths between chips, which in turn enhances microsystem performance and reduces power requirements. We are excited to be partnering with them.”

Projects underway

Lannon told WRALTechWire that the two organizations have already ” collaborated on several projects relating to large format array applications.” The results of those led to RTI’s decision to offer the QP capabaility, he added.

Results could soon appear in the marketplace.

“This technology is available now, and currently working its way into prototype systems,” Lannon said.

And more advances could be coming.

“RTI offers Quilt Packaging fabrication services to licensees of the technology,” he explained. “Also, there has been new intellectual property generated as development has progressed.”

Lannon said QP bolsters RTI’s efforts in semiconductor technology. RTI has in recent years spun off chip companies Ziptronix, SiXis, and Nextreme Thermal.

“The QP technology adds another advanced packaging and integration tool to RTI’s 3D integration technology toolbox, enhancing our ability to provide novel and innovative solutions for our customer’s device integration needs,” Lannon explained. “This relationship is mutually beneficial to both organizations.”

Jason Kulick, president of IIC, said integration of RTI’s technology and QP will let customers and developers to “assemble and qualify heterogeneous test vehicles, providing customers with the flexibility to choose their optimal multichip configuration, regardless of material or process technology.”

RTI’s Electronics and Applied Physics Division will work with IIC. RTI works with chip technology clients in microfabrication, process development, prototyping, demonstrations and small-volume production. 

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