NextFlex hosted a workshop January 18-19 at its Technology Hub in San Jose, CA, designed to explore and align opportunities for hybrid electronics technologies in new and emerging areas of semiconductor packaging. Attended by 100 subject matter experts from industry, academia, and government, the workshop provided opportunities to brainstorm and prioritize solutions for how the industry can shape the future of U.S. packaging capabilities. The solutions that were identified will inform potential NextFlex Project Call topics, as well as proposals for various opportunities that may arise from the CHIPS and Science Act or other programs.
Participants convened around four key theme areas: Direct Write Interconnects; Substrates and Build-up Layers; Interposers, Bridges & Architectures; and Circuitization. Breakout groups on each of these topics, led by pairs of members with manufacturing and development experience, were tasked with scoping manufacturing gaps, identifying potential solutions, and developing ideas that would help advance the technology through collaboration. Solutions that were identified included development programs, new tool capabilities, creation of new manufacturing facilities, and more. These discussions enabled the community to identify new potential partnerships, as well as ways to combine related ideas to solve bigger problems.