Innovation and collaboration - Keeping up with market demands and transitions

The performance drivers for high-performance Internet switching and routing systems have been increasing the bandwidth and data rate within the same electronic package with each successive product generation. These increases have been accommodated through higher Si integration of functionalities, such as high-speed Serdes, eSRAM, eDRAM, and eTCAM. However, the demand for increasing product performance has outpaced the increase in Si gate density, resulting in the need for larger die sizes, as well as the need for continuously evolving advanced packaging and substrate technologies. Innovations in high-performance packaging are critical to meet not only the challenges of high-speed electrical performance, signal and power integrity and enhanced thermal dissipation, but also to support the strenuous requirements of product-level reliability, high availability and long field life. Additionally, globalization and outsourced manufacturing models demand radical changes in technical partnerships and collaboration throughout the entire supply chain.