Sk hynix licenses the revolutionary 'dbi ultra' for its future dram

SK Hynix has signed a comprehensive new patent and technology licensing agreement with Xperi Corp. Among other things, the company licensed the DBI Ultra 2.5D / 3D interconnect technology developed by Invensas. The latter was designed to allow the construction of up to 16-Hi chipsets, including next-generation memory, and highly integrated SoCs that feature numerous homogeneous layers.

SK Hynix to use new DBI Ultra interconnect technology

Invensas DBI Ultra is a proprietary wafer-matrix hybrid junction interconnect technology that enables 100, 000 to 1, 000, 000 interconnections per mm2, using interconnection steps as small as 1 µm. According to the company, the much larger number of interconnects can offer dramatically higher bandwidth compared to conventional copper pillar interconnect technology, which only goes up to 625 interconnects per mm2. The small interconnects also offer a shorter z-height, allowing a 16-layer stacked chip to be built in the same space as conventional 8-Hi chips, allowing for higher memory densities.

Like other next-generation interconnect technologies, DBI Ultra supports both 2.5D and 3D integration. Furthermore, it allows the integration of semiconductor devices of different sizes and produced with different process technologies. This flexibility will be particularly useful not only for next-generation high-bandwidth, high-capacity memory solutions (including 3DS, HBM, and beyond), but also for highly integrated CPUs, GPUs, ASICs, FPGAs, and SoCs.

DBI Ultra uses a chemical bond that allows interconnecting layers that do not add separation height, and do not require copper abutments or bottom fill. While the process flow used for DBI Ultra is different when compared to conventional stacking processes, it continues to involve dies of known good quality and does not require high temperatures, resulting in relatively high yields.

Visit our guide on the best SSD drives on the market

SK Hynix does not reveal how it plans to use DBI Ultra technology, although it is reasonable to think that it would use it for its DRAM units in the coming years, which can give them a great advantage over their competitors. We will keep you informed.