Intel, the multinational technology company, is raising the bar in innovation ahead of its annual event, introducing a new development in its chip packaging: glass core substrates. With this step forward, the company plans to implement this technology into its product lines in the latter half of this decade, propelling chip packaging to newer, improved configurations.

The introduction of glass core substrates represents over a decade’s worth of research, signaling a shift from the traditional organic substrates present in current-generation processors. These substrates provide chip packaging with important benefits, such as structural stability and a means for signal transmission from silicon dies. With chip sizes and the number of signals required by high-end chips increasing over time, the need for new and improved substrate materials has driven Intel’s latest development.

Intel’s application of glass core substrates seeks to advance beyond the potential of existing organic substrates by enabling the packaging of larger chips and more efficient signal transmission. In particular, high-end multicore processors will benefit from these substrates, which lend superior mechanical stability, improved signal integrity, and the capacity to allow a larger number of signals through a non-silicon medium.

The demand for substrates traces back to earlier days when chip designs incorporated thousands of transistors, which required wiring to larger pins for systems installation by human hands. Over the years, substrate design evolved. The 90s saw a shift from metal frames to ceramic chips, followed by the advent of organic packaging around the turn of the millennium. Each iteration improved upon the preceding design to facilitate a larger number of signal and power pins for increasingly complex dies.

However, with the dimensions of co-working silicon interposers (chip on wafer on substrate) and high-end chips expanding, there have been mounting limitations to organic substrates. As a result, Intel has been examining alternatives offering better signal performance and denser routing than existing organic substrates.

Intel has made significant progress with replacing organic substrates, with glass leading the way. The initial outcomes indicate that a glass core substrate, at a high level, replaces the organic, PCB-like material of an organic package with glass. The company considers glass substrates as possessing superior mechanical and electrical properties, making them a promising avenue for future chips.

In terms of imminent steps, Intel considers industry-wide investment and ecosystem development as crucial to underpin the success of glass core substrates. It also acknowledges that glass core substrates are not a stand-in for more advanced packing methods centered around silicon mediums, such as EMIB, Foveros, or others.

Despite being several years away, Intel looks towards a future where products enhanced by glass core substrates lead the market. The first products to yield the benefits of glass core packaging are envisioned to be high-end HPC and AI chips. Following these launches, Intel plans to progressively offer the technology for smaller chips. The company remains optimistic about bringing the costs of glass core substrate production down to parity with organic substrates, extending the benefits to lower-priced processors.

Remember this inescapable fact; while glass core substrates may be a tighter signal pitch than organic substrates, it is not a replacement for more advanced packing techniques such as EMIB or Foveros. Intel looks towards a future where such technologies coexist complementarily, leading to a major technological transition in the chip industry.