IEEE Distinguished Lecture by Jan Vardaman

Growth Drivers and Limits for Advanced Packaging in the AI Data Center Era

E. Jan Vardaman

Abstract

AI data centers are driving the value of the semiconductor industry as well as developments in advanced packaging for GPUs/ASIC based accelerators, CPUs, and XPUs.  Supporting packages are also critical to enablement of the data center, including power modules.  Package options in production and under developing will be presented.  Concerns of energy use and water consumption are driving a system-level approach to provide better solutions.  Memory demand is driving the need for an increasing number of HBM stacks, larger interposer sizes, and increasingly complex substrates that require more area.  This growth put strains on the industry in terms of memory, interposer, substrate, and assembly capacity to meet the growing demand.  Trends in package architectures, materials, and cooling options are described.  Limitations to growth are highlighted.

Lecturer Bio

E. Jan Vardaman is president and founder of TechSearch International, Inc., which has provided market research and technology trend analysis in semiconductor packaging since 1987. She is the author of numerous publications on emerging trends in semiconductor packaging and assembly. She is a senior member of IEEE EPS and is an IEEE EPS Distinguished Lecturer and received the Distinguished Achievement Certificate for Technical Leadership and Expertise in May 2024. She received the IMAPS GBC Partnership award in 2012, the Daniel C. Hughes, Jr. Memorial Award in 2018, the Sidney J. Stein International Award in 2019, and she is an IMAPS Fellow. She served on the IEEE CPMT Board of Governors for two terms. Before founding TechSearch International, she served on the corporate staff of Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), the electronics industry’s first pre-competitive research consortium. She received her M.A. from University of Texas, in 1981.