TOSHIBA AND TESSERA ANNOUNCE INNOVATIVE LICENSING AGREEMENT
Sep 12, 2000 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- (Full text of a statement. Contact
details below.)
TOKYO, September 13/KYODO JBN-AsiaNet/-- Toshiba Corporation and Tessera Inc., a
leading provider and licensor of chip-scale packaging (CSP) technology, today
announced they have signed an innovative technology licensing agreement that
will enable Tessera to act as the exclusive licensor of Toshiba's wire-bonded
version of Tessera's JBGA(R) chip-scale package. Based on Tessera's core
patents, the wire-bonded JBGA package is currently used by Toshiba in its main
memory products (64Mb SDRAM and 128/144/256/288Mb Rambus DRAM), which ship not
only in PCs, but also in the new Sony PlayStation(R)2 game console.
The agreement represents an important milestone for both companies: it is a
unique opportunity for Toshiba's Semiconductor group to appoint another company
to exclusively license one of its packaging processes for sublicensing to the
rest of the industry, and it will be the first packaging process licensed by
Tessera that was not fully developed internally. This arrangement marks the
inaugural step in Tessera's new strategy to broadly license and standardize
packages that its licensees have developed using Tessera's patent portfolio.
"Toshiba licensed Tessera's intellectual property and used it to develop an
innovative derivative of our JBGA CSP," said Bruce McWilliams, president and CEO
of Tessera. "Through our new relationship, Tessera will enable Toshiba to
leverage its R&D investment by licensing the wire-bonded JBGA technology to
Tessera's broad, worldwide customer base of semiconductor manufacturers and
assemblers and helping to standardize this CSP technology. In return, Toshiba is
making it possible for Tessera to offer a wider range of packaging solutions to
its current and future licensees."
By expanding Tessera's product offerings, the licensing agreement will enable
the company to provide its licensees with a broad range of packaging processes
that meet the needs of current and next generation applications that require CSP
technology. The design of the wire-bonded JBGA package makes the technology well
suited to a wide range of semiconductor applications, and also allows assemblers
to leverage the well-established wire-bonding infrastructure. The wire-bonded
JBGA package is currently available to all of Tessera's licensees, and Tessera
plans to make "turnkey" consulting services for this solution available to its
licensees in the Fall.
"Tessera is one of the few companies in the world that has the infrastructure
required to broadly license advanced packaging technology, as well as a services
organization that can enable assemblers to achieve production capability as
quickly as possible," said Shigeo Koguchi, vice president of the Memory Division
at Toshiba Corporation Semiconductor Company. "The agreement creates an
opportunity for Toshiba to broadly introduce our technology to the world, and
for our current material and equipment vendors to expand their business - which
creates a more cost-competitive standard supporting infrastructure for our
wire-bonded JBGA package while providing second sourcing for our internal test
and assembly business. Additionally, our wire-bonded JBGA technology enables
assemblers to use existing wire-bonding equipment."
Terms of Agreement
According to the terms of the agreement, Toshiba will transfer technical and
engineering information related to the manufacture of the wire-bonded JBGA
chip-scale package to Tessera, and also provide technical assistance to Tessera
during the transfer. Tessera will become the exclusive licensor of Toshiba's
wire-bonded JBGA process, except for a few on-going second sourcing partners,
and will offer this technology to its licensee base of semiconductor
manufacturers and assemblers in the form of expanded licensing, technical
training, consulting and licensee services. Tessera will endeavor to drive the
wire-bonded JBGA technology as an alternative standard to Tessera's JBGA package
for Rambus DRAM, SDRAM and DDR SDRAM.
Tessera's "turnkey" licensee services address the time-to-market needs of all
Tessera licensees - including those who license Toshiba's wire-bonded JBGA
technology. These services enable licensees to leverage the expertise of
Tessera's experienced engineers to achieve production capability as quickly as
possible. By providing hands-on support throughout the entire installation of
their manufacturing lines, Tessera can offer its licensees specific levels of
yield and reliability and ensure that a standard equipment and material
infrastructure is in place to support these assemblers as they move into high
volume CSP production. |
