Draft:IC Substrate

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IC Substrate, also referred as IC Packaging Substrate or Semiconductor Packaging Substrate is a type of component used for interconnect between the semiconductor die and PCB board. It acts as a intermediate interconnect stage between nanoworld features of Silicon die and microworld of Printed Circuit Board.^[1]

IC Substrate is more and more prominent in today's advanced semiconductor world due to ever shrinking size of modern Integrated Circuit chips and due to the rapid development of advanced semiconductor packaging.^[2]

Types of IC Substrate

There are different types of IC Substrate used. Most prominent one is the organic IC Substrate used as a cheap interconnect layer between die-to-die and die to PCB.^[3] Ceramic Substrate is also used in sophisticated application such as Defence and Space application where the temperature and environmental side-effect determines the mission critical outcome of the projects. Organic IC Substrates are fast resurfacing as the cost effective de-facto carrier solution for Fan-out Panel Level Packaging (FOPLP) where size of panel determines the manufacturing cost and organic substrates are a viable alternatives to glass core substrate.^[4] Manufacturing of such IC Substrates needs the cumulative technology of front-end semiconductor such as metallization/metal plating, bump interconnect as well as advanced PCB manufacturing process such as laser drilling to create interlayer vias, multiple layers of conductive metal lines.^[5]

Features of IC Substrate

A typical IC substrate can be of multiple layers. It serves as the basis of advanced semiconductor packaging and facilitates the necessary interconnect between the different semiconductor dies mounted on top of it.

Top side of the IC Substrate is usually connected with the semiconductor dies with microbumps or Cu pillars and bottom side of the IC Substrate connects with the PCB via ball grid arrays, which are essentially solder bumps. Advanced IC Substrate also has the ability to embed passive components such as thin film chip capacitor, chip resistor or chip inductors inside the structure, thus reducing the interconnect spacing.^[6]

Embedding capability of such passive components inside a substrate leverages the shorter interconnect path which reduces the parasitic capacitance and possible cross-talk, which is specially very cruical for RF chips.

Embedded Component

Manufacturing Companies

There are handfull of companies manufacturing such substrate. Japanese IBIDEN,^[7] Shinko^[8] is prominent. Among Korean companies, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Samsung_Electro-Mechanics^[9], Daedook Electronics, LG Innolux are prominent. Among Taiwanense companies, Unimicron^[10] is the most famous one. Just like semiconductor front-end fabs, China is also pushing heavily to manufacture such substrate, most notably Shennan Circuits,^[11] although the high-end technologically sophisticated substrates are still produced by Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese companies. Among European companies. AT&S^[12] is the most prominent and advanced one.

References

1. "IC Substrate".
2. "AI Boom pushing IC Substrate".
3. "AI IC Substrate". 26 August 2025.
4. "Advancements in IC Substrate Packaging".
5. "IC Substrate Manufacturing Challenges".
6. "Package Substrates with Embedded Thin-Film Capacitor".
7. "IBIDEN FC Substrate".
8. "Shinko IC Substrate".
9. "Samsung IC Substrate".
10. "UMC IC Substrate".
11. "SCC IC Substrate".
12. "AT&S IC Substrate".