New Multi-Chip Package for 2.5G and 3G Mobile Handsets

Samsung Electronics announced mass production of a four-chip Multi-Chip Package (MCP) for mobile handsets. The company also announced a new integrated software system that greatly reduces the development time of MCP, System in Package (SiP) and System on Chip (SoC) designs by enabling simultaneous design of semiconductor circuits and packages.

"The fast-growing data processing and storage needs of camera and multimedia functions in 2.5 and 3G mobile phones require not just more memory bits and bytes, but increasingly sophisticated advanced memory systems," explained Tae-Sung Jung, vice president of Memory Product Planning & Application Engineering Team, Samsung Electronics. "With our strong memory portfolio and with the introduction of our innovative design program, Samsung leads the industry in providing MCP solutions that support our customer's diverse needs as well as their ability to get designs to market quickly."

Samsung's MCP stacks four chips in the space of a single chip, reducing the footprint by 50%. The MCP is 1.4mm in height, which is 0.2mm greater than a conventional component of 1.2mm. The MCP resolves wiring and resistance problems that occur due to the lack of space and the increasing number of devices in mobile devices. Additionally, the MCP enhances the electrical characteristics of each component as well as the performance of the product.

Samsung's MCP can employ various memory products for mobile solutions: SDRAM, SRAM, UtRAM, and NAND/NOR Flash memory. The new four-chip MCP is available in two combinations:

-- A NOR Flash based combination, part number RRNU6412864, consists of two 64Mbit NOR Flash memories, a 128Mbit NAND Flash memory and a 64Mb UtRAM.

-- A NAND Flash based MCP, part number NUUS128643208, consists of a 128Mbit NAND Flash memory, a 64Mbit UtRAM, a 32Mbit UtRAM and an 8Mbit SRAM.

Samsung expects the MCP market to reach US$2.9 billion in 2003 and continue to grow to US$4.0 billion in 2004 and US$5.2 billion by 2005.

New Package Design Program

Samsung's new software reduces time-to-market and supports diverse customer needs more quickly by allowing design and verification of the IC and the package to proceed in parallel instead of in serial steps. As a result, the overall development time of multi-functional devices such as the MCP, SiP and SoC has been reduced dramatically.

The new package design software allows designers to evaluate different choices of both electrical characteristics and physical implementation for a design even when the package specification is set at an initial stage of the IC/package design process. It also provides a built-in connectivity verification feature between different design domains such as package and IC.

"Samsung Electronics will use the new software program to break into and secure a leadership position in this market," said Jeong-Taek Kong, vice president of CAE Team, Samsung Electronics. "We expect this development will have a major spillover effect into other market segments in the future."