SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Allvia Inc., which bills itself as the world's first through-silicon via (TSV) foundry, has secured $5 million from private investors.
The funding will be used to expand its manufacturing facilities. This brings the total funding invested in the company to $25 million.
TSV is a radical step up from today's chip-stacking technologies, such as wire-bonding, flip-chip, multichip packaging (MCP) and system-in-package. Experts define a true 3-D package as one that stacks various chips vertically and then connects them by deploying TSVs or related techniques. The aim is to shorten the interconnections between the chips, reduce die sizes and boost device bandwidths.
In effect, TSV technology uses short vertical interconnects to create 3-D chip designs. Allvia (Sunnyvale, Calif.) claims to have been producing TSVs for over five years, providing development work for advanced vertical interconnects and system-in-package solutions.
The company has a fabrication facility in Sunnyvale and offers prototyping services and volume production runs.
''We're a specialty foundry,'' said Sergey Savastiouk, CEO of Allvia. ''We are producing (TSVs) while others are talking.''
Allvia does not make its own products; it provides foundry services. ''We just make the vias,'' he said. ''We're a narrow specialist in that area.''
There are two basic camps for TSVs, he said. The first camp is developing complex TSVs, which could be 2 micron in diameter and 4-to-6 micron deep. ''We consider that a futuristic approach,'' he said.
Allvia is developing TSVs with diameters of 10 micron and up. ''For today, that's practical,'' he said. To date, Allvia is developing MEMS, sensors and other products based on TSVs.
And the company is seeing demand despite the downturn. ''What we see in the marketplace is that some companies which started their own TSV development some time ago find it difficult to continue development in this downturn environment and they are coming to Allvia to benefit from existing operations,'' he added.
In 2004, Allvia opened a facility for joint TSV development projects with customers. The facility, which is 20,000-square-feet operation, represents an investment of more than $6 million. It offers services for prototyping and full volume production of both front side and back side TSVs to the MEMS and semiconductor industries.
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