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How 3-D Integration Will Challenge and Reshape the Memory Industry

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Jun 5 2009

Research and Markets, leading source for international market research and market data, has announced the addition of the "Memory Applications, Packaging + Integration Trends 2009" report to their offering.

The memory semiconductor industry is about to go through a period of major technological changes as new integration trends and disruptive packaging technologies pave the way to the future growth of this industry …

Historically, the DRAM memory market has been mostly driven by computing applications while NOR Flash has been mainly deployed into consumer and communication devices. More recently, NAND Flash memory has emerged as the most promising solid state storage solution for current consumer devices and is showing as the best candidate for hard disk drive replacement in the near future.

INTEGRATION IS THE NEXT CHALLENGE
On the other hand, today wireless is growing and enabling new market segments everywhere, (smart-phones, mobile pocket computing devices…).

As a result, CONNECTIVIY and INTEGRATION are now new drivers to deal with. Demand for data is increasing everywhere: Faster pipes, more pipes (WAN, LAN, PAN), HD multimedia...

Current complexity and concurrency require more than ever higher data capacity, improved power consumption and is stressing existing well established architectures: new interconnects, integration schemes and packaging technologies are needed to support higher performance, breakthrough density and low power consumption devices. 3-D IC integration is showing as a major solution path to tackle these challenges and memories will be key components in achieving this successful integration.

3-D INTEGRATION WILL OPEN A NEW APPLICATION SPACE FOR MEMORY MARKET

Yole Developpement has followed the burgeoning 3-D Packaging industry since its early beginning The global economic downturn is challenging the fast adoption of the “Through Silicon Vias” technology into high volume applications such as low cost memories. However, we are seeing concrete signs that this market is definitely taking-off, with the first 3-D integrated DRAM memories being shipped this year: we estimate that about 20 000 wafers of DRAM memory will be shipped with 3D TSV by the end of 2009, with production moving forward to higher volumes in 2010. By 2013, we expect that telecom and computing industries will drive more than 70% of the volume for 3-D TSV integrated memories.

3-D integration with memories is a hot topic at the moment because of the challenging market conditions and of the important investment needed for building the required infrastructure. As a result, precompetitive alliances and partnerships may be necessary to drive the risk down while accelerating product adoption. Memory manufacturers, CMOS foundries, OSAT packaging houses, Fab-less IC players and integrated device manufacturers are all concerned and actively preparing for this ultimate integration.

This new study aims at answering the following questions: What are the end applications driving the use of 3-D integrated memories? Who are the key players doing it? How will it happen? When will the market ramp up? What is the impact of the current economic turmoil? How big is this 3-D memory market going to be and at which conditions? How will 3D TSV technologies boost new applications and drive the growth of Flash and DRAM market?

Key features of the report

Up-to-date Key metrics of the memory market:
- Per application (more than 30 products screened)
- Per type of memory (DRAM / SRAM / NOR / NAND Flash)
- In Munits shipment and in 300mm wafer equivalent
Impact of 3-D integration on the memory market and applications
Key players strategy for 3DIC integration with memories
Cost analysis & challenges for TSV manufacturing
How to make TSV interconnects happen in high volume / low cost memory markets?

Key features of the report

Up-to-date Key metrics of the memory market: