engineering

Multi-project wafer service

Multi-project wafer service is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Multi-project wafer service rather than just read about it. In short: Multi-project chip (MPC), and multi-project wafer (MPW) semiconductor manufacturing arrangements allow customers to share tooling (like mask) and microelectronics wafer fabrication cost between several designs or projects. With the MPC arrangement, one chip is a combination of several designs and this combined chip is then repeated all over the wafer during the manufacturing.

Key takeaways

Multi-project wafer service belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Multi-project wafer service to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Multi-project wafer service from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Multi-project chip (MPC), and multi-project wafer (MPW) semiconductor manufacturing arrangements allow customers to share tooling (like mask) and microelectronics wafer fabrication cost between several designs or projects.

With the MPC arrangement, one chip is a combination of several designs and this combined chip is then repeated all over the wafer during the manufacturing. The MPC arrangement typically produces a roughly equal number of chip designs per wafer.

With the MPW arrangement, different chip designs are aggregated on a wafer, with perhaps a different number of designs/projects per wafer. This is made possible by novel mask-making and exposure systems in photolithography during IC manufacturing. MPW builds upon the older MPC procedures and enables more effective support for different phases and needs of manufacturing volumes of different designs/projects. MPW arrangement support education, research of new circuit architectures and structures, prototyping, and even small-volume production.

Worldwide, several MPW services are available from companies, semiconductor foundries and from government-supported institutions. Originally both MPC and MPW arrangements were introduced for integrated circuit (IC) education and research; some MPC/MPW services/gateways are aimed for non-commercial use only. Currently MPC/MPW services are effectively used for system on a chip integration. Selecting the right service platform at the prototyping phase ensures gradual scaling up production via MPW services taking into account the rules of the selected service. MPC/MPW arrangements have also been applied to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), integrated photonics like photonics fabrication including also other materials than silicon like InP, flexible electronics, microfluidics and even chiplets. A refinement of MPW is multi-layer mask (MLM) arrangement, where a limited number of masks (e.g. 4) are changed during manufacturing at exposure phase. The rest of the masks are the same from the chip to chip on the whole wafer. MLM approach is well suited for several specific cases:

Large (even possibly part or whole wafer) designs like detectors, where by using few mask layers it is possible to form functional devices Making different versions of one design/project, like for different performance or standards of one design Typically MLM approach is used for one wafer batch (consisting of several wafers depending on the fabrication line) and for one customer. By using MLM it is possible to get larger devices (even up to wafer size) or larger number of dies and wafers up to few batches typically. MLM is a smooth continuation from MPW production volumes upwards and therefore this may support also small/mid size volume production. Not all foundries support MLM arrangements. Due to the complexity of the technologies available and the need to run MPC/MPWs smoothly, following the rules, timing of the designs and use of suggested design tools are critical for leveraging the benefits of MPC/MPW services. However every service provider has its own practicalities including design data, die sizes, design rules, device models, design tools used, ready IP blocks available and timing etc. Turn around times and cost of MPC and MPW services depend on the manufacturing technology and designs/prototypes are typically available as bare dies or as packaged devices. Deliveries are typically untested, but in most of the cases the quality of the manufacturing process is guaranteed by the measurement results of process control monitor(s) (PCM) or similar. MPC approach was one of the first hardware service platforms in semiconductor industry, and the MPW arrangement is continuing to be part of microelectronics manufacturing and foundry model not limited to silicon IC manufacturing but spreading into other semiconductor and microelectronic production areas for prototyping, development and research.

Companies and services Many MPC/MPW arrangements were first nationwide activities, but were expanded international, global co-operative activities based on emerging and later mature semiconductor foundry technologies available from research institutes or universities and commercial foundries:

CMC Microsystems CMC Microsystems is a not-for-profit organization in Canada accelerating research and innovation in advanced technologies. Founded in 1984, CMC lowers barriers to designing, manufacturing, and testing prototypes in microelectronics, photonics, quantum, MEMS, and packaging. CMC technology platforms such as the ESP (Electronic Sensor Platform) jumpstart R&D projects, enabling engineers and scientists to achieve results sooner and at a lower cost. Annually, more than 700 research teams from companies and 100 academic institutions around the world access CMC's services and turn more than 400 designs into prototypes through its global network of manufacturers. This support enables 400 industrial collaborations and 1,000 trained HQP to join industry each year, and these relationships assist in the translation of academic research into outcomes—publications, patents, and commercialization.

Muse Semiconductor Muse Semiconductor was founded in 2018 by former eSilicon employees. The company name "Muse" is an informal acronym for MPW University SErvice. Muse focuses on serving the MPW needs of microelectronics researchers. Muse supports all TSMC technologies and offers an MPW service with a minimum area of 1mm^2 for some technologies. Muse is a member of the TSMC University FinFET Program.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Multi-project wafer service

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Multi-project wafer service claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Multi-project wafer service before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Multi-project wafer service ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Multi-project wafer service

In research: Multi-project wafer service appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Multi-project wafer service in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Multi-project wafer service is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Electronic design automation, Electronic engineering, Semiconductor device fabrication, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Multi-project wafer service outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Multi-project wafer service in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Multi-project wafer service means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Multi-project wafer service out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Multi-project wafer service in simple terms?

Why does Multi-project wafer service matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Multi-project wafer service?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Multi-project wafer service.