The Six Semiconductor – 7nm chips with 2.5D integration

The Six Semiconductor (TSS) specializes in the development of high-speed DDR PHY IP solutions for various memory standards, serving a wide range of applications.

They’re blessed with highly experienced in-house design teams. Still, as TSS co-founder and CEO Richard Fung explains, “When you’re striving for excellence, you sometimes need a partner who gives you that extra push forward.”

Full-turnkey ASIC project

TSS partnered with IC-Link for a full-turnkey ASIC project , recognizing that the technical and logistical complexity would be too great to handle alone.

This collaboration resulted in two 7nm memory subsystem test chips, including a 2.5D integration manufacturing flow. Getting access to such advanced packaging services was a key reason for engaging with IC-Link.

Right people and right mindset

Designing a chip is a challenging process. When problems arise, all teams must work together to resolve them quickly. That’s exactly what happened in this project. Just three weeks before tape-out, a major issue threatened the schedule.

Fortunately, TSS and IC-Link joined forces to identify the root cause and implement a fix that allowed the tape-out to proceed as planned.

In the words of TSS co-founder and CTO Ricky Lau: “This goes to show that if you have the right people and the right mindset, you can overcome anything”

Critical role for IC-Link

Richard Fung concludes: “Although we’re a customer of IC-Link, we’ve been treated like a partner from day one. We couldn’t have managed to complete those tape-outs on time without them. With that, they will play a critical role in our future success.”