First of all, you should know that developing and building a processor is extremely complex. The manufacturing of the silicon DIE alone takes a large number of hours and there is no guarantee of success, come on, that it will work.
Subsequently, this “piece” of silicon must be installed on a special base to form the final processor. In simple models, AMD has a system of several DIEs in the same package. Well, it seems that the company has developed a solution to put an end to conventional organic substrates.
Glass as a substrate, AMD’s big bet
You probably don’t know this, but currently substrates are made of organic materials, which is problematic. These conditions are far from ideal, with degradation over time being cited as the main problem. It seems that AMD has found a solution to use glass in high-performance cases.
Glass SiPs offer superior flatness, better thermal properties and higher mechanical strength. They are a perfect solution for the development of advanced SiPs containing multiple chiplets. It seems that this process will be mainly used in solutions for data centers, where performance and durability are essential.
The use of glass for substrates aligns with the current industry trend toward developing increasingly complex chip designs. This is primarily due to the rising cost of modern manufacturing processes and the increasing difficulty of improving performance.
To give you an idea, AMD EPYC already has a configuration of up to 13 chipsets. This even happens in the Instinct AI accelerators, which include no less than 22 pieces of silicon. If you want something bigger, the most powerful Intel Ponte Vecchio solutions contain a total of 63 DIEs in a single package.
With these new glass SiPs, even more complex designs can be developed without relying on expensive interposers. Apparently, this new compound should help reduce production costs.
Initially, it will be used to increase the performance of AI and HPC accelerators, two of the most important markets today.
This is not the only company using glass substrates, as it is a growing trend. Companies like Intel, Samsung or LG also use them for their products.
Market projections predict explosive growth over the next decade. They would go from $23 million in 2024 to $4.2 billion in 2034. It is worth knowing that Intel already announced last year an investment of nearly $1 billion to start using the glass substrate in its chips in 2028.
It is becoming clear that the glass substrate will be the future of chip design. Everything indicates that mass production of chips with this type of technology will begin in the coming years.
