2D vs. 2.5D vs. 3D ICs 101

Clive Maxfield, EETimes
4/8/2012 12:08 PM EDT

I see a lot of articles bouncing around the Internet these days about 2.5D and 3D ICs. One really good one that came out recently was 2.5D ICs are more than a stepping stone to 3D ICs by Mike Santarini of Xilinx. On the other hand, there are a lot of other articles that have “3D ICs” in the title, but when I plunge in I realize that we’re really only talking about 2.5D ICs.

The problem is that there’s a lot of confusion in this area. While chatting to people I find that they typically either know this stuff “inside and out” … or they are somewhat baffled and bewildered. Thus, I decided to pen a few words on the subject to explain the way in which I see things. The following is “off the top of my head”, so please feel free to comment saying whether you agree or disagree with my meandering musings.

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