“Corning Precision Glass Solutions has grown more than 30% over the past two years since it was founded,” said Rustom Desai, commercial director of Corning Precision Glass Solutions, during his interview with the Elec on January 30, 2019. 

Corning’s key revenue contributor is glass substrates used for display panels. However, Corning has been expanding its businesses, launching various semiconductor and electric component solutions through Corning Precision Glass Solutions.

Of these products, Rustom Desai highlighted carrier glass optimized for advanced packaging process. Addressing in-process warp is challenging especially for an interposer-based 2.5D design or advanced packaging processes such as fan-out wafer level packaging (FOWLP). However, Rustom Desai said with confidence “Corning can provide a solution.”

The FOWLP process usually takes the following steps. An adhesive tape or film is bonded to the carrier substrate. Individual dies are picked and placed on the carrier. Once the dies are placed side by side, the epoxy mold compound (EMC) is used to encapsulate the chip. Then, electrically conductive redistribution layer (RDL) is fabricated. 

In-process warp is unavoidable during high-temperature processes such as EMC molding. Reducing in-process warp is the key to improving production yield. “FOWLP uses multiple layers of different materials. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) varies by material, making it difficult to address in-process warp problems,” said Rustom Desai. “Corning’s carrier glass significantly improves such problem.”

Rustom Desai underlined that Corning Advanced Packaging Carriers are available in a wide range of coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) in fine granularity and feature high stiffness. A stiff material is less likely to warp. Furthermore, Corning can make sample quantities of these carriers available in just four to six weeks. Rustom Desai said “Corning’s solution can reduce in-process warp by 40% compared to conventional solutions” and added “Corning has provided customers with samples, which received very positive responses.”

Aside from carrier glass for packaging process, Rustom Desai said Corning will foster new growth drivers such as high refractive-index glass substrate for AR devices, wafer level optics (WLO) for 3D facial recognition, RF filter and antenna glass material for 5G telecom.  

He emphasized “Corning’s glass solutions will be applicable across industries.”

See the article as it originally appeared in The Elec:

Corning’s glass carriers significantly reduce warp during advanced packaging process