There's plenty of advanced packaging news to share this week — ranging from Big Blue's announcement about cooling 3-D chips with water to Entorian introducing a stacking alternative to dual-die packaging to new tool announcements, new R&D centers and licensing agreements. You can read all about it here and also find more advanced packaging news and events by visiting our Semiconductor Packaging Technology Channel:

Sally Cole Johnson, Contributing Editor
scolejohnson@mac.com

Aviza Develops Etch/PVD/CVD Tool for 3-D IC R&D
Sally Cole Johnson, Contributing Editor — Semiconductor International, 6/17/2008

Three primary factors are driving the adoption of 3-D ICs and associated packaging technologies: increased functionality, size shrinks and a lower cost. For through-silicon via (TSV) technology to be adopted in 3-D ICs, the cost has to be right — and there's a lot of research underway right now to try to drive it down below the $200 mark. More

ASE Packages One Billion Bluetooth Devices for CSR
Business Wire, 6/17/2008

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE) announced that it has provided CSR with the subcontractor assembly services that facilitated the shipment of its first one billion Bluetooth devices. CSR, a global provider of personal wireless technology, selected ASE for consistently providing the technology and manufacturing acumen critical to the successful manufacture of Bluetooth devices. More

Advantest Boosts Tested Multichip Packages per Hour
Kenji Tsuda, Asia Contributing Editor — Semiconductor International, 6/16/2008

Advantest Corp. (Tokyo) has developed two new memory testers designed for multichip package (MCP) memory applications: T5781 MCP tester and B2510 burn-in wafer tester for known good die (KGD). More

Unisem, FlipChip Sign Licensing Agreement for Wafer Bumping, WLP
Business Wire, 6/16/2008

Unisem and its subsidiary, Unisem-Advanpack Technologies Sdn Bhd (UAT), have entered into an agreement with FlipChip International LLC (FCI) for the licensing of FCI's wafer bumping and wafer-level packaging (WLP) technologies. As part of the agreement, UAT will license FCI's core technologies, including its premier Spheron technology. FCI will further solidify its investment in the partnership by becoming a shareholder of UAT. More

Entorian Introduces Stacking Alternative to Dual-Die Packaging
Business Wire, 6/13/2008

Entorian Technologies Inc. announced RC Stakpak, a new, low-cost package-on-package (PoP) stacking technology for DRAM memory. More

ASMPT to Build R&D Center in Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone
Asia Pulse, 6/10/2008

ASM Pacific Technology Ltd. (ASMPT) will set up an R&D center in Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. The center will engage in R&D of core technologies for semiconductor packaging devices. More

IBM Cools 3-D Chips With Water
Market Wire, 6/4/2008

IBM Researchers, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin, demonstrated a prototype that integrates a cooling system into 3-D chips by piping water directly between each layer in the stack. More

MEMS Create 3-D Inspection Challenges
Jon Titus, Contributing Technical Editor — Test and Measurement World, 6/01/2008

Microphones, accelerometers, pressure sensors and many other products take advantage of MEMS. The diversity of MEMS devices presents vendors and users of inspection systems with a sizeable challenge: Unlike ICs that all look somewhat similar, each MEMS device has its own peculiarities and structures that require a unique inspection "recipe." More