Abstract
Description
Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging is the most innovative advanced packaging
technology today, adopted for mobile phone and consumer electronics
applications. Analysing the status of the patent situation is key to
understanding the business situation.
ANALYSIS OF THE TECHNICAL CONTENT OF THE PATENT PORTFOLIO
After several years of specific analysis for customers, Yole Developpement has
decided to publish its first analysis of the technical contents of patents: we
have focused this first analysis on the FOWLP area, a new packaging technology
which is changing the patent landscape for semiconductor packaging across a
wide range of application spaces. Yole Developpement has developed a specific
methodology to conduct our analysis (described below), mixing Yole
Developpement technical and business knowledge with classical access to patent
database.
A FEW COMPANIES WITH A LOT OF PATENTS, A LOT OF COMPANIES WITH A FEW PATENTS.
A complex patent landscape: 10 companies dominate the FOWLP IP space, but more
than 120 organizations have patents in this field and represent 232 relevant
patent families and 231 related patent families (Yole Developpement has
discovered more than 1,000 patents). The analysis provides a database of all
the relevant patents in an Excel file enabling multicriteria search. The
criteria are basically those we used for the technological segmentation:
Patent information
- Patent publication number
- Title
- Abstract
- Assignee/applicant
- Inventors
- Priority date
- Patent family relationships
FOWLP structure criteria
- FOWLP toolbox detail or improvement (die placement, bonding,
encapsulation, carrier
- de-bonding, passivation, RDL, bumping,singulation)
- Additional elements to the original process
Chip orientation
Carrier shape
Architecture details
- 2D structures
- MCP
- 3D structures
- PoP
- PiP
- Stacked dies
- Use of vertical interconnects
- TSV
- TMV
- Technology used
- eWLB
- RCP
- PBP
- Other
Packaged devices
It is also interesting to note that the size of the players involved in this
area is variable. We can find large companies like TSMC as well as start-up
and small players like Megica. The FOWLP IP space is studied from different
angles and the analysis provides analysis of patents filled by these different
kinds of players including the most recent assignees.
This complete description of the patent landscape is included in the first
part of the analysis and provides all the background materials for the FOWLP
patent landscape review. It also provides a complete analysis of the patent
landscape including geographic origins of the patents, company or R&D
organizations that have been granted the patents, historical data on when the
companies have applied patents in the last 20 years, inventors of the patents,
expiration status, R&D collaborations...
DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE TOP 10 FOWLP PATENT ASSIGNEES
The analysis also provides a deep dive into each patent portfolio of the TOP10
patent assignees, including Infineon, ACE, Tessera, Samsung, Freescale,
StatsChipPac, ASE, Amkor Technologies and STM. For each of these companies,
the analysis provides an in-depth analysis of the patent portfolio of these
companies, highlighting the following points:
- Company patent portfolio evolution
- Countries of deposition and origin of the patents
- Top inventors
- Process flow developed by the company (for commercially available devices)
- Technical segmentation of each patent portfolio
- Patent portfolio analysis for each manufacturing process steps and
architecture
- Main technical innovations
- Which patents are used today in production, which patents are here to
prepare the future generation of FOWLP technologies (multi dies, panel scale
FOWLP, PoP FOWLP, TMV...)
- Remaining challenges for the company from YOLE analysis
This analysis of each company provides an in-depth view of the strengths and
weaknesses of the patent portfolio of each company and the developments that
are now implemented by these companies.
UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY ANALYSIS OF THE PATENT CONTENT, IDENTIFICATION OF THE KEY PATENTS
Based on Yole Developpement analysis of the technology trends in FOWLP,the R&D
of all the players worldwide and teardown of the devices in production, Yole
Developpement have been able to identify and analyze the most important
innovations for each process step of FOWLP, from die placement to
encapsulation, passivation to bumping... For each part of the process steps of
FOWLP, the analysis provides the related patents and the evidence of its use
in real devices taking full benefit of teardown analysis provided by our
partner System Plus Consulting. For example, a strong focus is made on
Infineon's eWLB technology as well as on the 2nd generation FOWLP patents
describing new architectures using the eWLB solution (please see also the full
reverse analysis carried out by System Plus Consulting: Infineon Fan-out WLP
Reverse Costing Analysis). As a synthesis, the analysis provides a ranking of
the most important patents to highlight which of all the analyzed documents
are blocking, which company owns such patents and the content of each patent.
METHODOLOGY OF THE ANALYSIS
Based on requests on Micropatent, and several other database, Yole
Developpement has developed a unique methodology (described in the sample) to
define a technical segmentation of the patent landscape and define which
patents are the most innovative, either to prepare the future or to be used
already in production. Yole Developpement, by mixing its technical knowledge,
business understanding and patent search, is able to provide unique analysis
and added value you will find in this analysis.
KEY FEATURES OF THE ANALYSIS
- Presentation of the industrial and business status of the FOWLP today
- Definition and delivery of a database of all the relevant patents with
technological segmentation
- Detailed architecture to be implemented
- Identification of the key patents and the owner of such patents
- Making links with the patents available and what has been implemented in
production today.
WHO SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN THIS ANALYSIS
- The executives of device makers and advanced packaging companies to look
at the FOWLP business and the major patent evolutions that could impact the
industry in the short, medium and long term
- The technology and R&D teams of IDM, fabless and assembly service
providers companies, looking to learn from the status of the patent landscape
in the FOWLP fields
- The end users, trying to understand the patent landscape of FOWLP before
using it in their own systems or devices
- The technology team of equipment and materials manufacturers involved in
the FOWLP, looking to have a complete
- picture of patent situation and the blocking patents.
INDEX OF COMPANIES MENTIONED IN THE ANALYSIS
Advanced Chip Engineering (ACE), Infineon Technologies, Samsung, STATS
ChipPac, Tessera, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), Freescale,
Semiconductor, Micron Technology, Megica, Qimonda, Amkor Technology, Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC), STM, Fujitsu, Hynix Semiconductor,
Agency For Science Technology & Research (ASTAR), Broadcom, NX P, Renesas
Electronics, Xintec, Hitachi, Sony, Analog Devices, Flip Chip Technologies,
IMEC, Jiangyin Changdian Advanced Packaging (JCAP), Mediatek Inc, Motorola,
Nippon Steel, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), Advanced Interconnect
Solutions, Advanced Micro Devices, ChipMOS Technologies, IBM, Industrial
Technology Research Institute (ITRI), King Dragon International,National
Hybrid, Nepes, Schott, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC),
Shinko Electric Industries, Siliconware Precision Industries, Sumitomo,
Bakelite, Toyota Industries, Unisem Holdings, Visera Technologies, Yamaha,
Yupei Technology, Agilent Technologies Inc, Altera, Apic Yamada, Aptina
Imaging Corporation, Atmel, Cambridge Silicon Radio, Casio Computer, China
WLCSP, Chipbond Technology Corporation, Cypress Semiconductor, Daimler Benz,
Deca Technologies, Easetech Korea, Epic Technologies Inc, Epworks, Express
Packaging, Systems, Fairchild Semiconductor, Fineart Technology,
Formfactor,Fujikura, Georgia Tech Research, Ibiden, Invensas, IPdia, Kingston
Technology, Kyocera Chemical, LSI Logic, Marvell, Maxim Integrated Products,
Microasi Inc, Miji Electronic, Mitsubishi Electric, Nanonexus Inc, National
University Of Singapore, NEC Electronics, Oerlikon, Panasonic, Petari
Incorporation, Philips,Powertech Technology, Princo, Prisma Fibers, Qualcomm,
Ricoh, Salmon Technologies, Sharp, Silicon Storage Technology, Texas
Instruments, Thin Film, Module, Toppan Printing, Toray Advanced Materials
Korea, Toshiba, Triquint Semiconductor, Tsinghua University, Ultratech Inc,
Universiteit Gent, US National,Institutes of Health (NIH), Verigy (Singapore)
Pte Ltd, Waters Technologies, Westinghouse Electric.
Benefits
KEY FEATURES OF THE ANALYSIS
- Presentation of the industrial and business status of the FOWLP today
- Definition and delivery of a database of all the relevant patents with
technological segmentation
- Detailed architecture to be implemented
- Identification of the key patents and the owner of such patents
- Making links with the patents available and what has been implemented in
production today.
WHO SHOULD BE INTERESTED IN THIS ANALYSIS
- The executives of device makers and advanced packaging companies to look
at the FOWLP business and the major patent evolutions that could impact the
industry in the short, medium and long term
- The technology and R&D teams of IDM, fabless and assembly service
providers companies, looking to learn from the status of the patent landscape
in the FOWLP fields
- The end users, trying to understand the patent landscape of FOWLP before
using it in their own systems or devices
- The technology team of equipment and materials manufacturers involved in
the FOWLP, looking to have a complete
- picture of patent situation and the blocking patents.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Methodology for patent screening and analysis
Objectives of this report
Search strategy for FOWLP IP analysis
FOWLP roadmap
IP landscape analysis:
- TOP 10 patent assignees for FOWLP technologies
- Landscape overview in 2012
- Evolution of the major assignees for FOWLP
- Recent assignees for FOWLP
- Top Inventors
- Top academics and R&D centers
- FOWLP WIPO application status
- Legal status distribution of all relevant patents
- FOWLP patents expiration status
- Main collaborations
- List of all assignees (125 companies)
Analysis of the FOWLP pa tents filed by the key players:
- For each company, the following analysis has been done
- Company profile
- Patent evolution in the last 10 years
- Description of the technology under development or in production
- Process flow and related patent currently used
- Countries of deposition
- Top inventors
- Patent mapping and analysis per process steps and new architectures
- Companies included in the analysis:
- ACE
- Amkor Technologies
- ASE
- Freescale
- Infineon
- Samsung
- ST
- Statschippac
- Tessera
Key patent analysis
- Methodology used for the identification
- Identification of the key patents
- Description and analysis of each of the key patent
- Specific analysis of the new FOWLP architectures
Cross link analysis
Conclusion & appendix
FOWLP Patent Analysis published by Yole Developpement in July 6, 2012. This report price starts from US $ 9290.
