Chairholders: Dominique Drouin and Julien Sylvestre
University: University of Sherbrooke
Today, continued progress in electronics depends largely on the industry’s ability to successfully integrate different types of devices and integrated circuits, a practice called “heterogeneous integration encapsulation.” The main objective of the chair’s research program, which will be carried out in collaboration with IBM Canada, is to use advanced encapsulation technologies for performance scaling.
This program results from a technological development strategy which provides for the assembly of complex and large chips linked together by connections with very large data transfer capacities, in more flexible configurations than a simple stack of chips. A range of electrical interconnection methods will be examined, with optimized geometric configurations or materials (e.g. the use of silicon “bridge” chips without vertical interconnection to replace expensive and large interposers in encapsulation 2,5D) Furthermore, given the demand for increased bandwidth that requires less power, it now becomes necessary to more efficiently couple optical links to modules or chips and therefore explore cutting-edge photonic encapsulation technologies The research work will focus on the manufacturing of relatively complete prototypes that will make it possible to demonstrate the heterogeneous integration technologies that will have been developed within the framework of the program These prototypes will be essential for verifying the performance and reliability of new ideas, based on systems complex enough to be representative of real applications. The program will train more than 24 highly qualified students in a world-class research environment and in doing so, will help generate new scientific knowledge that will advance microelectronic technologies. The results can then be quickly transferred to industry and directly contribute to accelerating the evolution of high-performance computing and networking.
