Taiwan's
UMC and Powertech Technology, together with Japan's Elpida Memory, announced on
June 21, 2010 that the three companies are going to cooperate on developing TSV
(Through Silicon Via) technology to enhance 3D IC integration for advanced
processes, including 28nm, according
to the Commercial Times of Taiwan. It is expected that the cooperation will
take advantage of Elpida's DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) technologies,
Powertech's packaging capabilities, and UMC's logic foundry expertise.
As
per the agreement, the three companies will jointly develop a total solution, incorporating
logic and DRAM interface design, TSV formation, wafer thinning, testing, and
chip stacking assembly, according to the same source. Volume production is
slated for 2012.