Chiplet's popularity is becoming more and more intense. Chiplet is not only a direction that is pursued by the chip industry chain, but also a hot commodity for secondary market capital. Since August, many Chiplet-related concept stocks have all risen, and Chiplet has become a high-frequency inquiry word on interactive platforms. A hundred listed companies in various semiconductor industry chains have been "soul-questioned". Even if the listed companies in the department have clarified that it has nothing to do with Chiplet, the stocks have also risen to varying degrees, which shows the popularity.
Chiplet is popular
Chiplet, also known as core particles, is undoubtedly one of the hottest technologies in the integrated circuit industry in recent years. For decades, the semiconductor industry has been following the Moore Law of . In fact, while the Moore Law was proposed in 1965, in that pioneering paper, Moore also mentioned that "the economics of breaking a single chip into smaller parts will become meaningful one day." At present, this day seems to have arrived.
To some extent, AMD uses chiplet concept is the most successful case. In 2017, AMD launched its first-generation Epyc server processor Naples, which has 4 similar CPU in a single package; by 2019, AMD launched the second-generation EPYC processor Rome, which used 8 CPU chips at this time, which used 14nm process, while the internally packaged CPU Chiplet uses 7nm transistors to increase speed and power. Rome is more than twice the performance of the best processor of Intel at that time.
Figure: AMD Epyc 7002 Rome
As a processor's future, Chiplet has two obvious benefits:
1. Low cost: The reduction in cost of On the one hand, the chip area is now getting bigger and bigger, not only increasing the manufacturing difficulty, but also increasing the loss caused by yield. By dividing large chips into smaller Chiplets, the output (or yield) is increased, and manufacturing costs are reduced; on the other hand, Chiplet allows the use of different manufacturing nodes to create heterogeneous chips. Modules with different functions in SoCh can use different Wafer technology. High performance may require 5nm, and other performance may only require 40 or 28 to maximize performance. In addition, businesses can reuse chiplets in multiple products to reduce design time and chipping costs. According to statistics, Chiplet can reduce the cost of 7nm chip design by 25%, to 5nm and below, and save even greater cost.
2. Break through the limit of SoC design: Chiplet breaks through the scale limit of the mask area, breaks through the functional limit through heterogeneous integration, so that it is no longer subject to multiple processes, improves the performance of the chip through scalable computing power, and greatly shortens the construction period limit through agile development.
Chiplet has been proven to be valid by companies such as AMD, Intel, Apple , Huawei and Samsung , and has obtained huge product value and benefits through Chiplet technology. In the second quarter of this year, AMD's CPU market share has reached 31.4% (25.3% in the same period last year). In March 2022, Apple's self-developed M1 Ultra once again pushed Chiplet to the forefront, and the M1 chip , designed by Chiplet, was a great success and innovated the personal computer industry.
is not only used for CPUs, but AMD's recently released patent shows that Chiplet is also promising for GPUs. In addition, the RDNA 3 GPU architecture, which AMD plans to launch at the end of this year, is also based on Chiplet design. The architecture will adopt the Navi 3x core, 5nm process, and the goal is to use RDNA 3 to increase performance per watt by another 50%.
Chiplet's potential is far more than that. Huang Chaobo, a software and hardware fusion expert, said that many current Chiplet practices have not maximized the value of Chiplet, but have only used the most basic value of Chiplet.We believe that the value brought by Chiplet should not be linear growth, but exponential growth: on the one hand, quantitative change will cause qualitative change, the popularity of Chiplet and the rapid increase in single-chip design scale will provide greater room for system architecture innovation, so that the computing architecture will move from heterogeneous to super heterogeneous; on the other hand, the exponential increase in computing power brought by super heterogeneous can make the value of Chiplet more fully utilized, which in turn will promote the maturity of Chiplet technology and market prosperity.
In the future, with the demand for Chiplet in the global consumer electronics industry, HPC computing and other areas, the Chiplet market prospects are very good. According to a report by research firm Omdia, the global market size of Chiplet-based processor chips will reach US$5.8 billion in 2024 and will reach US$57 billion by 2035.
Domestic industrial chains have stepped up their layout
Chiplet has become the key to the new value growth of the semiconductor industry chain. Intuitively speaking, Chiplet is actually a SiP formed by multiple Chiplets through advanced packaging technology. It integrates chips of different process nodes and different materials through advanced integration technologies (such as 2.5D/3D integration technology) to form a system chip, realizing a new form of IP multiplexing. Therefore, the powerful business opportunities nurtured in the Chiplet industry chain have become a must-fight place for many manufacturers to sharpen their knives.
is a semiconductor IP company first, and Xinyuan Co., Ltd. and Xindong Technology have both made arrangements in the Chiplet field. In its semi-annual report, Xinyuan Co., Ltd. introduced the progress related to Chiplet, saying that the company may become the first company in the world to launch Chiplet commercial products to customers. Xindong Technology has also launched a high-performance, low-cost Innolink Chiplet solution. One of the big features or advantages of Chiplet is IP reuse. The upgrade and efforts of IP suppliers such as Xinyuan Co., Ltd. and Xindong Technology will help system manufacturers and Internet manufacturers, which lack chip design experience and resources to better develop products.
is secondly in the packaging field. The implementation of Chiplet technology must rely on advanced packaging, such as SiP, 2.5D/3D, etc. Therefore, domestic packaging manufacturers must naturally seize this trend. Previously, Zheng Li, director and CEO of Changdian Technology, said: "Advanced packaging, or chip finished product manufacturing, may become one of the important disruptive technologies in the post-Moore era, especially the position of later manufacturing in the industrial chain is becoming increasingly important and is expected to become a new commanding height for the integrated circuit industry."
Changdian Technology joined the UCIe Industry Alliance in June. In response to Chiplet heterogeneous integrated applications, Changdian Technology launched XDFOI™ multi-dimensional advanced packaging in July last year. Technology, On July 29 this year, the Changdian Microelectronics wafer-level microsystem integrated high-end manufacturing project officially started, and XDFOI multi-dimensional advanced packaging technology will also become one of the production capacity focus of this high-end manufacturing project; Tongfu Microelectronics need not be said, AMD is one of its major customers. Tongfu Microelectronics has large-scale packaging and testing of Chiplet products, 7nm products have been mass-produced on a large scale, and 5nm products have completed research and development and will be mass-produced; another packaging and testing manufacturer, Huatian Technology , said that it has mastered Chiplet-related technologies. The advanced 2.5D/3D IC package required by
Chiplet implements a new architecture for the chip, but also subverts the design process. The interaction between the package and the chip is important and needs to be carefully considered in the analysis and optimization steps. This process requires full support from EDA tools. In terms of domestic EDA, Xinhe Semiconductor has launched the "2.5D/3D multi-chip Chiplet" design analysis full-process EDA platform; on July 1, 2022, EDA company Shanghai Xinrui Micro completed the full acquisition of Shenzhen Zsipak. Shenzhen Zhongke has focused on the SiP field for many years and transplanted industrial accumulation into the Chiplet field in 2021.
Since the Chiplet encapsulates multiple dies and the design difficulty is greatly increased, in order for the Chiplet to run normally, each die needs to be detected. Each participating chiplet must be very "clean". Otherwise, the overall product yield and future failure analysis will be an extremely complex and difficult task.Therefore, the importance of wafer level testing (CP) has been greatly improved, and full-function wafer testing is inevitable, which also has a higher demand for the number and performance of test equipment. Therefore, chip testing equipment manufacturers and independent testing manufacturers are also expected to benefit. Liyang Chip said on the interactive platform that breakthroughs in Chiplet testing technology are also a very difficult problem, and the company is actively planning the testing problems in the Chiplet era. The transformation of the Chiplet design process is not only in EDA tools, but also in the early stages of chip design, packaging design and testing solutions are considered in all aspects. At present, Chiplet's model is still dominated by a single company's self-integration. With the launch of the multi-vendor collaboration model, chip design such as Moore Elite and supply chain platform will give full play to its unique value throughout the entire process. With the help of its own SiP packaging and testing factory and ATE testing equipment, the implementation of Chiplet is accelerated in terms of measurability design DFT, chip system joint simulation, wafer-level testing, etc.
When we talk about Chiplet, most of the time, we usually think of packaging method and IP reuse first, but the chip design link is more important. Han Yinhe, a researcher at the Institute of Computing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "Chiplet needs to be more about looking at the design dimension to make major changes to the entire industry, not just IP and packaging links. "
Yunxiu Capital Partner and Chief Technology Officer Zhao Zhanxiang also pointed out in his public speech that Chiplet is not only advanced packaging, but also reasonable architectural design capabilities complement the packaging technology. Only by moving forward with the advanced packaging of architecture design and advanced packaging can the implementation and implementation of Chiplet be accelerated. Each large chip implemented with Chiplet technology must be the product of the combined effect of the two.
There are very few domestic Chiplet chip design companies
In the domestic chip design process, there are relatively few chip design companies that have embarked on the Chiplet route. Before this, we first need to understand what kind of chips are suitable for Chiplet design routes? From the footprints of AMD and Intel manufacturers, we can find that the commercialization path of Chiplet technology on CPUs can be said to be the best choice at present. CPUs have high performance, high integration and high cost characteristics. Using Chiplet architecture can maximize performance, accelerate iteration, significantly reduce reuse and mass production costs, increase product flexibility and diversity, and significantly alleviate supply chain pressure.
At the 2022CCF Chip Conference sub-forum held in July, Ma Kaisheng, a special researcher and assistant professor at the Tsinghua University Cross Information Research Institute, analyzed that the closer is to the limit of Moore's law, such as 5nm, 3nm and 2nm chips to follow the Chiplet design route; then it is to use a set of Chiplet to match high, medium and low-end products to give full play to the Chiplet's revision Also, when the area of 800 square millimeter lithography machine is reached, there is a Chiplet requirement; specifically for chip applications, large chips such as CPU and GPU are suitable. For large chips, it is recommended that more than 200 square millimeters, and preferably more than 400 square millimeters are suitable for making Chiplets; if we only look at the cost point, chips with lower prices such as MCU are currently not necessary.
Currently, domestic companies' exploration in Chiplet is mainly centered on the two major fields of CPU and GPU. However, in the long run, as the Chiplet industry chain becomes more mature, the development of Chiplet will not be limited to such large chips, but will have a broader space for application. Recently, domestic chip design companies such as Cambrian, Biren Technology, Supermotor Technology, and Kiwi Moore have announced their plans in the Chiplet field. Specifically:
Cambrian Siyuan 370 is an AI chip that uses Chiplet (Chiplet) technology, which packages two AI computing Chiplets into one AI chip.
Biren Technology's general-purpose GPU chip BR100 recently released also adopts the Chiplet design concept and released a single Chiplet product BR104. The Chiplet design scheme makes it a single chip to obtain two chips.
On July 25, 2022, Chaomo Technology announced that it had completed a Pre-A round of financing of over 100 million yuan. This round of financing was led by Datai Capital, and Yunxiu Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. Founded in 2021, Beijing Supermotor Technology is a high-performance CPU design company based on the Chiplet architecture.
On August 15, 2022, Kiwi Moore (Shanghai) Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Kiwi Moore") announced the completion of a 100 million-yuan seed and angel round financing. Kiwi Moore was established in early 2021, focusing on 2.5D and 3DIC Chiplet products and services, mainly providing high-performance universal base base die, high-speed interface ChipletIO Die, Chiplet software design platform and other products.
Ecological construction is the key to a technological revolution. Only when more and more chip design companies begin to adopt Chiplet design can the entire domestic Chiplet ecosystem be more mature and stable.
In March 2022, industry leaders such as AMD, Arm, ASE, Google Cloud, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Qualcomm , Samsung and TSMC jointly announced the establishment of the UCIe Industry Alliance to jointly build Chiplet interconnection standards, promote an open Chiplet ecosystem, and formulate relevant technical standards and specifications for UCIe. Since then, cloud service manufacturers, chip foundries, system OEMs, chip IP suppliers and chip design companies have joined the UCIe Alliance. It is not difficult to see the computing industry's expectations for Chiplet standard construction and ecological construction.
Among domestic companies, Xinyuan Microelectronics, Xindong Technology, Changxin Storage, Xinhe Semiconductor, Xinyaohui, Moore Elite, Canxin Semiconductor, Yixin Technology, Niuxin Semiconductor, Xinyunling, Supermotor Technology, Shim Computing, Shixin Electronics, Alibaba , Huixi Intelligence, OPPO, Aip Technology, Liji Storage, Lanyang Intelligence and other domestic companies have become members of the UCIe Alliance.
Cold thinking behind Chiplet's hotness
From the perspective of the industry chain, all leaders are following the industry trends, successively deploying key technologies upstream and downstream, and have successively made breakthroughs in architectural design, interconnection ports, advanced packaging and other links. The development of domestic Chiplet is indeed promising, but the design and packaging problems faced by Chiplet are indeed worthy of respect.
Zhu Jing, deputy secretary-general of Beijing Semiconductor Industry Association, said, I think everyone should take Chiplet calmly. Many views mention that Chiplet can bypass the obstacles of advanced processes and achieve the goal of being close to having advanced processes. But in fact, Chiplet is essentially an integrated technology. The premise for excellent overall performance is that there cannot be any shortcomings. At the same time, it has added a series of integration difficulties such as Internet and heat dissipation. Therefore, although Chiplet may be able to bypass some obstacles, the technology itself creates more obstacles. Regarding advanced technology, we cannot have any opportunistic mentality, just settle down and do it steadily. All shortcuts have been blocked, so don’t try to find any shortcuts anymore, and can only face it head-on.
Professor Huang Letian of the School of Electronic Science and Engineering of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China mentioned in the article "A Brief Discussion on the Development Route of Local Chiplets" that in China, we need to pay attention to the current actual industrial status in the domestic industry. On the one hand, Chiplet, as a new technical route, does provide a method to keep the overall number of transistors of the chip product continuously increasing after packaging while the number of single bare chip transistors is limited; on the other hand, Chiplet is by no means a "universal magic medicine" to solve the current domestic chip industry. Its limitations and challenges are also great, and new challenges will also lead to special domestic situations.
Hanyin and told the author that as a firm supporter of the new paradigm of 2.5/3D integrated chip represented by Chiplet, he does not argue about specific technologies, and makes two judgments: 1) In the field of high-performance, most chips will be Chiplet integrated chips within 5 years; 2) The Chiplet ecosystem is gradually improving, and the cost of integrated chips is lower than the development of a chip from beginning to end.He also put forward three policy suggestions on the development of Chiplet: Recommendation 1. Use high-end processors as the traction target and carrier of Chiplet integrated chips; Recommendation 2. Build a Chiplet ecosystem, use processor Chiplet and interconnected Chiplet as ecological tools to quickly form several Chiplet IP and EDA innovation companies; Recommendation 3: Establish new R&D institutions and industry-university-research alliances, and lead enterprises will substantially participate in systematic planning standards.
As Moore's Law reaches its limit, Chiplet is generally regarded by the industry as the main technology for improving computing power in the next five years. In addition, my country's industry cannot solve the bottleneck of EUV lithography machines in the medium and short term, and it is difficult to achieve a process below 7nm. It is also highly expected that it is an important way for my country to break through the semiconductor process. But we should look at Chiplet rationally, and the hotter it is now, the harder it is to do.
