- SCHOTT has set itself the goal of meeting the chip industry's growing demand for advanced chip packaging based on glass substrates.

- A three-point action plan aims to accelerate product development and optimization, as well as investments.

The international technology group SCHOTT is supporting the chip industry in meeting the advancing pace of Moore's Law with new materials in the future. This development is needed for more powerful computers that enable computationally intensive applications such as artificial intelligence (AI). As high-quality glass substrates are critical to advanced packaging in the coming decade, SCHOTT is proactively setting the course today to enable the industry to innovate even more.

The future of chip packaging starts with glass. This is emphasized by Dr. Frank Heinricht, CEO of SCHOTT, in connection with the company's commitment to the IC industry. "Today, we are announcing an action plan to meet the increasing demand for glass substrates for advanced chip packaging. It is divided into three main areas: research, product improvement and investment," says Dr. Heinricht. "As we are in constant contact with leading companies in the industry, we are now accelerating our product development. Our goal is to supply the research and development departments of the chip industry with high-quality glass substrates."

The Action Plan addresses the following areas:

1. Product innovations: Important material innovations from SCHOTT for a wide range of applications in the IC industry are already immediately available today. In addition, substrates tailored for various applications in modern chip packaging have reached the final stage of development and are on the verge of being ready for the market.

2. Refinement of existing substrates: In recent years, glass substrates for the IC industry have been constantly optimized and further developed, for example by regularly improving geometric tolerances or maximum versatility in terms of format, thickness and material properties. SCHOTT will continue to improve and optimize its products in order to be prepared for the future requirements of the industry.

3. Expansion of smelting and processing capacities and capabilities: Large capacities are needed to seamlessly meet the increasing demand. For this reason, SCHOTT has decided to expand its infrastructure. In this way, the capacities and capabilities of the global production sites are continuously expanded.

"Major steps in advanced packaging can be realized on the basis of material innovations. Since specialty glass has numerous properties that are crucial for semiconductor manufacturing, the material has great potential for the future of industry," says Stefan Hergott, head of SCHOTT's Special Flat Glass & Wafer business unit.

Unique characteristics of glass, such as the thermal and mechanical properties or the low thickness tolerances in the geometries, enable innovations and unprecedented designs in the field of semiconductor packaging. Thanks to these properties, experts in the semiconductor sector can design high-quality and innovative packaging solutions.

SCHOTT already offers a wide range of products for specific applications in advanced packaging. These include glass panes for semiconductor packaging (e.g. D263 T eco, BOROFLOAT 33® or AF 32® eco) or glass as carrier discs (e.g. made of AF 35 G or BOROFLOAT®) in semiconductor production.®

Beyond substrates: SCHOTT has been enabling the production of computer chips for decades
In addition to the latest innovations in the field of glass substrates tailored to the semiconductor industry, SCHOTT's products have been an important part of chip manufacturing for decades. The material ZERODUR®, for example, is an essential component of the world's leading lithography systems. In these machines, silicon wafers and exposure masks must be precisely positioned to produce the finest structures for the most powerful microchips. SCHOTT products, including flexible light guides, also ensure that maximum precision is guaranteed during the process. Since these machines are used in all chip foundries and IDMs around the world, almost all computer chips in the world come into contact with special glass from SCHOTT.