UMC, AP Memory Tape Out Gen2D Silicon Capacitors for AI Power Delivery

GC Hung, UMC's senior vice president, said AI and HPC are pushing power delivery away from the board and toward vertical integration at chip level. In his words, DTC technology lets high-density capacitance sit closer to the compute die. Voltgrid News covered the rack-level side in Infineon's 800 VDC work with NVIDIA.

Ivan Hong, AP Memory's president, said the tape-out and initial wafer validation show the flexibility and manufacturability of the customised S-SiCap design. He described the offer to customers as a total solution from product design to wafer manufacturing.

What comes next

The next step is comprehensive system-level performance and reliability testing of the capacitors in substrate packages, covering a range of capacitance and operating-voltage requirements, the companies said. They are also exploring capacitor-embedded interposers and landside capacitors, which would extend the same approach to other package layouts. Voltgrid News also reported on Broadcom and TOPPAN's Singapore substrate plant.

UMC said its power delivery roadmap covers both discrete and embedded silicon capacitors and reaches toward active components such as internal voltage regulators. It is also investing in new manufacturing capacity for power delivery and heterogeneous integration. The release gives no amount or schedule for that capacity. UMC lists 12 fabs in production with combined capacity of more than 400,000 wafers per month, in 12-inch equivalents.

What is not confirmed yet

The validation is initial and functional. Reliability and system-level results are still to come, and the release names no customer, no capacitance or voltage specification and no date for volume production. DigiTimes headlined the news as "validated" capacitors, but the companies themselves limit the claim to initial functional validation. Until the substrate-package tests report, the figures that matter to power designers, such as capacitance density and reliability under load, remain undisclosed.