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Tessera Announces New Process Delivering 50% Reduction in Rambus DRAM Packaging Costs
BUSINESS WIRE - February 29, 2000 21:13
YOKOHAMA, Japan, Feb 29, 2000 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Tessera's Widely-Used CSP Technology Adopted by Rambus DRAM Manufacturers
Tessera(R) Inc., the industry's leading provider and licensor of chip-scale packaging (CSP) technology, today announced a new manufacturing process that will drastically reduce the package assembly costs of Rambus(R) DRAMs and other integrated circuits.
Tessera is unveiling its CSP cost reduction roadmap at the Rambus Memory Solution Forum 2000, taking place here March 1 and 2 at the Shin Yokohama Prince Hotel. Tessera's Zinger 4.0 process, a key element of the roadmap, is now in production and available to Tessera licensees worldwide.
"The introduction of the Zinger 4.0 process is a key element in reducing the cost of assembling Rambus DRAMs," said Bruce McWilliams, president and CEO of Tessera. "Since Tessera's CSP technology is used by RDRAM manufacturers, the new process and Tessera's future cost reduction efforts will continue to help drive industry adoption of Rambus technology by further improving its affordability."
Tessera's widely-used CSP technology is Rambus' reference package for RDRAM(R) devices because it is a high-performance, cost effective solution for high-speed data transfer between Rambus-compatible devices. Rambus' high-speed interface technology has already been adopted by industry leading computer and consumer companies, and the combination of Tessera's and Rambus' cost reduction efforts will help accelerate and broaden worldwide adoption.
One particularly large market for Rambus technology is the consumer electronics market, dominated by leading Japanese companies. Rambus DRAMs incorporating Tessera's CSP technology are used in the Sony PlayStation(R)2 game console, and are expected to proliferate in other gaming platforms, digital TVs, set-top boxes and other applications that require high bandwidth memory interfaces.
Tessera's new Zinger 4.0 process reduces the assembly costs of RDRAMs and other (mu)BGA packages by more than 50 percent over existing processes. The new process achieves these savings through a variety of cost-cutting measures, including more efficient use of the tab tape, the development of a new injection process, new automatic equipment for tape conversion, and improved equipment utilization.
Combined, these actions reduce the amount of materials, length of time and number of steps needed for the (mu)BGA assembly process.
"Tessera's high performance CSP technology helps meet the electrical performance required for the high bandwidth of RDRAMs," said Dr. Frank Fox, vice president of the Memory, Architecture, and Technology Division at Rambus Inc. "Tessera's CSP cost reduction efforts will go a long way in helping to drive down the cost and accelerate the adoption of Rambus technology."
Tessera recently announced the next step in its cost reduction roadmap -- next generation WAVE(TM) (Wide Area Vertical Expansion) CSP technology. (Please see the WAVE release dated February 29.)
About Tessera Inc.
Tessera is the leading developer and licensor of chip-scale packaging technology to the semiconductor industry. The company's technology sets new standards in performance, reliability, size and cost, and is ideal for high performance and space-constrained applications such as wireless handsets, PCs, game consoles and other devices used to communicate and access the Internet.
Tessera's flagship CSP technology, the (mu)BGA package, has been adopted as the de facto standard for a number of semiconductor applications.
Tessera currently licenses its advanced packaging technology to over 30 assembly and semiconductor companies, including Amkor, ASE, AMD, ChipMOS, ChipPAC, EEMS, Hitachi, Hyundai, Infineon, Intel, IPAC, LG, Meicer, Mitsui, Samsung, Sharp, Shinko, Sony, SPIL, ST Microelectronics, Texas Instruments and Toshiba. Tessera is based in San Jose, Calif.
Additional information is available at www.tessera.com.
Note to Editors: Tessera, (mu)BGA and the Tessera logo are registered trademarks of Tessera, Inc. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Inc. Rambus and RDRAM are registered trademarks of Rambus Inc. All other brand and product names may be trademarks of their respective companies.
Distributed via COMTEX.
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