Editorial Contacts:C. William Clark, 919-485-5300, [email protected]Robert Markunas, 919-485-5300, [email protected]
XILINX INVESTS IN ZIPTRONIXNew wafer bonding process combines multiple chips into one three-dimensional chip
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., April 2, 2001:
Ziptronix, Inc., an innovator in wafer-scale semiconductor integration, today announced the closing of an investment from Xilinx, Inc., (NASDAQ:XLNX). Dale Rowe, RTI's vice-president of technology ventures led the Ziptronix spin-off and the securing of investment capital. Atlanta-based Alliance Technology Ventures led the first round investment that closed on October 27, 2000, contributing $4 million.
"Xilinx makes judicious investments in startup companies possessing synergistic technology with our own development plans," said David Squires, director of strategic product planning at Xilinx. "Ziptronix offers innovative three dimensional bonding and interconnect technology that provides Xilinx with a new dimension of design alternatives for future products."
"Ziptronix plans to license its technology to large semiconductor firms, and perform custom part integration for key customers, " said Bill Clark, president & CEO of Ziptronix. "Our many years of research and resulting strong intellectual property position create a significant barrier to entry in this embryonic field."
"Ziptronix offers the electronics industry the ability to create complex, heterogeneous, multi-layer circuits by permitting the robust bonding of wafers or die constructed from disparate processes or material families," said Bob Markunas, Ziptronix co-founder and vice-president of marketing. "Potential applications include single chip cell phones with integrated 'bluetooth' technology, higher speed wireless LANs, lower cost 3rd Generation wireless base stations and significantly higher bandwidth optical network components."
The Ziptronix process starts with a 'host wafer' containing many chips. Then, other wafers or individual chips are bonded to the host at room temperature. The substrate from the second wafer or individual chips is then removed, leaving only a few microns containing the active electronics. Electrical interconnects are then made between the host and the bonded wafer or die using a standard via-based interconnect process identical to that used in semiconductor fabrication facilities to electrically interconnect different layers of a single wafer. The process can be repeated multiple times. The end result is an integration of many chips into a single three-dimensional structure, providing order of magnitude performance enhancements over today's two-dimensional chips.
About Ziptronix
Ziptronix is a startup semiconductor company developing revolutionary and widely applicable three-dimensional semiconductor fabric bonding and interconnect technology. Founded in October 2000, Ziptronix is the first company formed by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI, www.rti.org) to commercialize developments from its ongoing research programs. Ziptronix represents over eight years of semiconductor bonding and interconnect research. It is one of several commercialization initiatives initiated by RTI. Ziptronix has grown to 14 employees and is located in Research Triangle Park, NC.
www.ziptronix.com3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park NC 27709
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