To provide increased performance and smaller sized portable electronics and other advanced systems, CEA-Leti signed a multiyear agreement with Shinko Electric Industries Co. Ltd. to develop advanced semiconductor packaging technology. The work will focus on silicon interposers, a technology that offers advantages for next-generation applications. The passive intermediate layers can be used in several ways to boost the useable performance and reduce the footprint of advanced silicon chips. Example applications include the mounting of multiple chips on a single interposer, and the use of interposers to route large numbers of input/output connections onto silicon dies that would otherwise be too small to accommodate them. The two organizations will work together at the common lab, located at Leti’s headquarters in Grenoble. Shinko of Nagano, Japan, has done the preceding development of the processing 3-D silicon packaging technologies. The joint venture with Leti will allow it to accelerate development for the mass production of the substrate. CEA-Leti is a French research and technology public organization with activities in four areas, including energy, information technologies, healthcare technologies, and defense and security. For more information, visit: www.leti.fr