I recently had the privilege of sitting down with Jan Vardaman, President of TechSearch International and a leading authority in semiconductor packaging analysis, to discuss the transformative shifts occurring in integrated circuit design and manufacturing. "Our focus is entirely on advanced packaging, and the developments were seeing now are happening faster than ever," Vardaman explained, setting the stage for an informative discussion about the semiconductor industry's evolution toward chiplet-based architectures.
www.eetimes.com, May. 20, 2025 –
As the semiconductor industry approaches a projected market value of $1 trillion by 2030, the transition from traditional monolithic architectures to modular chiplet-based designs represents a fundamental shift in integrated circuit development. During our conversation, Vardaman provided crucial insights into why this transition is occurring: “The reason we’re seeing so much interest in the idea of the chiplet is that it offers a new way to design an IC. We can no longer afford to fabricate everything as a monolithic die on the most expensive nodes.”
The technical rationale behind chiplet architecture stems from the increasing complexity and cost of manufacturing at advanced nodes. By disaggregating complex systems into smaller, specialized components, manufacturers can optimize process nodes for specific components based on their performance requirements. High-performance elements can utilize cutting-edge process nodes, while peripheral components can be manufactured using mature processes, resulting in optimal cost-performance ratios.
During our discussion, Vardaman highlighted how industry leaders are implementing these new approaches. AMD’s success with chiplet implementation across their product lines serves as a compelling example. “You’ve seen many designs over the last several years from AMD for servers, desktops, and gaming. The arguments they’ve made for chiplet designs are that the savings on the silicon side make up for any additional cost for the package,” Vardaman noted.