Amkor says glass substrates, the CoWoS alternative Intel has been pushing, should see its first commercial use within three years as the industry chases bigger AI packages.
TSMC still runs the advanced packaging show thanks to CoWoS 2.5D, which lets logic sit alongside HBM in one tight bundle as stacks keep multiplying. OpenAI has even waved around an EMIB-like approach to sidestep current CoWoS constraints.
The roadmaps are getting silly, with CoWoS designs heading towards 2029 parts that go beyond 14 reticles and cram in 24 HBM packages. More exotic kits, such as SoW-X, are meant to scale beyond 40 reticles and more than 60 HBM packages, on paper at least.
The catch is the usual mess of complexity and cost, because bigger packages are harder to design, build, and keep flat. Thermal and mechanical stress can trigger warping, and RDL-based processes can push production time beyond a month.
That sort of drag creates bottlenecks across performance, substrates, thermal management, connectivity and how data gets shoved around inside the package. Glass substrates are being pitched as the way out, with better stability than organic substrates and less deformation under stress.
At The Elec conference in Seoul, Amkor Technology team leader Yoo Dong-soo said, “In the past, there were doubts about whether glass substrates could withstand the stress received during packaging, but technological stability is being secured… We expect them to be commercialised within three years.”
Amkor is already tied in with Chipzilla on the glass substrates effort, and big names are sniffing around because the foundation layer matters when you are stacking HBM like Lego. Intel has already shown off its first “Glass Core” substrates using EMIB packaging as part of its pitch for next-gen AI products.
The project started under former Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger, and there has been chatter about whether Chipzilla would cool on it. Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan seems keen to keep it moving.
