Texas Instruments Ships 30 Million Power Management Devices in 3D Packages

While performance requirements for computing applications have been steadily rising to handle more content such as broadband mobile video and 4G communications, the need for telecom and computing equipments to take up less space has also been simultaneously increasing. By going from 2D to 3D packages for power management devices, semiconductor supplier Texas Instruments (News - Alert) has been addressing these demands.


As a result, Texas Instruments has shipped more than 30 million power management devices featuring PowerStack 3D packaging technology, which TI claims delivers significant performance boost, lowers power consumption and improves chip densities in comparison to convention 2D packages.

According to Texas Instruments, PowerStack uses the company’s NexFET power MOSFETs stacked on a grounded lead frame using two copper clips to connect the input and output voltage pins. This novel combination of stacking and clip bonding results in a more integrated quad flat no-lead (QFN) package, said TI. TI claims that PowerStack approach reduces package size by as much as 50 percent compared to conventional packages that position MOSFETs side-by-side. In addition, it improves efficiency, cuts power consumption by about 20 percent, and provides excellent thermal performance.

In a statement, Jan Vardaman, president and founder of TechSearch International said, “PowerStack is the first packaging technology I've seen like this in the power arena.”

“Momentum for 3D packaging solutions is growing, and this technology is well suited to address a number of current and next generation design challenges,” added Vardaman.

PowerStack is in volume production at TI's Clark facility, which is located in the Philippines. According to Bing Viera, managing director of TI Philippines, “This year, we are further expanding capacity for advanced packaging techniques in Clark, nearly doubling the site's initial capacity by the third quarter.”