SAN JOSE, Calif. - (Business Wire) Tessera Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:TSRA), a leading provider of miniaturization technologies for the electronics industry, announced today that Advanced Wafer Level Packaging Inc. (AWLP) has licensed the full range of SHELLCASE
® image sensor packaging technologies from Tessera, including the SHELLCASE MVP solution, which is one of the industry
’s first Through Silicon Via (TSV) solutions.
The market continues to demand increasingly thinner packages, higher yield, enhanced reliability and lower cost for image sensor packaging. Tessera’s SHELLCASE wafer-level chip-scale packaging (WLCSP) includes the latest advancements in image sensor packaging technology and delivers a high-yield, highly reliable manufacturing solution for image sensors used in next-generation mobile devices including mobile phones and PDAs.
“The market for image sensor packaging continues to grow rapidly, especially as it migrates to 2 mega pixel and above, where the benefits of our SHELLCASE technology really pay off in reducing module assembly yield losses,” said Michael Bereziuk, executive vice president, Imaging & Optics, Tessera. “AWLP shares our vision of this significant market opportunity and will create a new manufacturing site in a region that is driving the next-generation of imager and camera modules.”
AWLP is an early-stage start-up company based in Seoul, Korea. The new outsource packaging company will be dedicated to providing SHELLCASE packaging services to semiconductor manufacturing companies. While AWLP will specialize in image sensor technology, it will also offer packaging services for devices including micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and light sensors. For more information on AWLP, go to www.awlpinc.com.
“We are very happy to license WLCSP technology from Tessera as their top licensee in Korea,” said YJ Shim, chief executive officer, AWLP. “We will provide the newest, highest quality chip-scale packaging technology service to meet out customers’ image sensor packaging requirements.”
AWLP was established in 2007 as a foundry service provider dedicated to Tessera WLCSP technology. AWLP’s facility is now being built in Kwangju City and will begin production by the end of 1Q09.
About SHELLCASE
Tessera’s industry-proven SHELLCASE wafer-level chip-scale packaging technology reduces costs and accelerates time-to-market. It incorporates a thin layer of glass at the wafer level, which is placed on top of an image sensor; an image sensor is a device that converts an optical image to an electric signal in digital cameras. The wafer is then diced and assembled into a module to protect it from contamination during the module assembly stage. This significantly improves manufacturing yields, which are affected by contamination, and enables manufacturers to run lower-cost manufacturing assembly processes by avoiding the need for expensive clean room facilities.
A conventional WLCSP is an integrated circuit (IC) package with an area no greater than 1.2 times that of the IC and is mounted on the IC at the wafer level. The SHELLCASE MVP solution provides a WLCSP the same size of the IC. It is one of the industry’s first to use Through Silicon Vias (TSVs), which are vertical electrical connections passing through a silicon wafer or die. TSVs allow 3D die-stacking of the image sensor on another IC by vertically integrating two or more die with a dense, high-speed interface.
The SHELLCASE MVP solution does not require modification or re-layout of the image sensor wafer, as previous generations required. It was qualified to JEDEC - Level 1, making it highly reliable and suitable for a wide range of applications beyond cell phone cameras. As one of the thinnest solutions available on the market, it enables very low profile camera modules, providing OEMs with greater design flexibility.
About Tessera
Tessera Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:TSRA) is a leading provider of miniaturization technologies for the electronics industry. The company licenses its innovations, as well as delivers products based on these innovations to promote the development of the supply chain infrastructure, enabling manufacturers to get the right product to market, at the right time. Tessera is headquartered in San Jose, California. For information call 1.408.894.0700 or go to www.tessera.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ significantly from those projected. Material factors that may cause results to differ from the statements made include delays, setbacks or losses relating to our intellectual property or intellectual property litigations, or any invalidation or limitation of our key patents; fluctuations in our operating results due to the timing of new license agreements and royalties, or due to legal costs; changes in patent laws, regulation or enforcement, or other factors that might affect our ability to protect our intellectual property; the risk of a decline in demand for semiconductor products; failure by the industry to adopt our technologies; competing technologies; the future expiration of our patents; the future expiration of our license agreements and the cessation of related royalty income; the failure or refusal of licensees to pay royalties; failure to achieve the growth prospects and synergies expected from acquisition transactions; and delays and challenges associated with integrating acquired companies with our existing businesses. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. Tessera's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, include more information about factors that could affect the company's financial results.
Tessera, the Tessera logo and SHELLCASE are trademarks or registered trademarks of Tessera Inc. or its affiliated companies in the United States and other countries. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Tessera
Judy Erkanat, +1-408-952-4414
jerkanat@tessera.com
or
JHG-Townsend for Tessera
Liya Sharif or Lori Scribner, +1-858-457-4888
Tessera_Team@jhg.com
