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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michel Bera who wrote (7569)	9/29/1998 3:46:00 PM
From: froland	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 93625

News: Posted: 3:00 p.m., EDT, 9/29/98 Tape carrier moves RDRAMs to chip-scale packages By Yoshika Hara TOKYO — Hitachi Cable Ltd. has developed a tape automated bonding (TAB) tape carrier that's been optimized for Direct Rambus-memory chip-scale packages (CSPs). The Hitachi Chip Mounting Tape uses a package called the Hitachi Compliant Chip Package, which is based on a microBGA developed by Tessera Inc. and licensed to Hitachi Cable (Tokyo). "We are going to supply the TAB tape to our customers so that they can assemble RDRAMs in microBGAs by themselves," said Yoshihiro Matsuyama, senior executive managing director of Hitachi Cable. The TAB tape bonds an RDRAM to the tape with elastomers. The tape functions as a polyimid flexible interposer for the inner leads, and absorbs the different expansion rates of the die and the printed-circuit board. The approach enables use of the reel-to-reel method, cutting costs. "It will be five times faster than the conventional method and the cost will be about the same as the thin small-outline package eventually," said Gen Murakami, director of semiconductor packaging technology at Hitachi Cable. Murakami said the compliant-chip package supports a microBGA device with a bare silicon surface. The package has a pin pitch of 0.5 mm to 1.27 mm, with up to 300 pins. The package exceeds the Jedec level 1 requirements for humidity and temperature. Hitachi Cable developed an elastomer with a fluorine-type core for the TAB tape, which withstands 1,000 hours in 85 percent humidity at 85°C, Murakami said. TAB has been used since last year for flash memories and SRAM packaged in CSPs and is being extended to microBGAs intended for 64-Mbit RDRAMs. Hitachi Cable plans to apply this technology to devices like microprocessors and logic ICs as well and to license it in an early stage so that multiple vendors can supply the TAB tapes. Hitachi Cable plans a production capacity of 50 million units by the end of next year. In parallel, the company will start an assembly business using the technology with 10 million units of RDRAM assembly capacity per year. Rambus and Intel have worked to strengthen the infrastructure and lower the expected costs of CSPs required for RDRAMs. Norihiko Naono, a director of Rambus Japan, said that "within three years, a 2 billion-unit RDRAM market will emerge." Naono said Rambus defined the electrical specifications and did not specify the specific form of CSP. "It is the RDRAM vendors who actually select the form of the package [for DRDRAM]. But thus far, only Hitachi Cable has been able to supply a package. All of the RDRAM devices under testing employ Hitachi Cable's package." Akira Minamikawa, senior analyst at ICD Japan Ltd., said an adequate supply of CSPs is now a concern in the electronics industry. "Currently, CSPs are mainly used for devices for compact portable equipment, but from now on, RDRAMs will be the demand driver." froland.