Chipletz

Chipletz operates as a fabless substrate vendor, concentrating on advanced packaging technology to address the performance demands of modern computing in the face of a decelerating Moore's Law. The company was established in 2021, originating as an internal venture within AMD in 2016 before spinning off. This strategic move positions Chipletz to leverage its architectural engineering know-how and established network of major customers. The founding team is composed of seasoned professionals from the semiconductor industry, many of whom are veterans of AMD. Co-founder and CEO Bryan Black, who previously served as a Senior Fellow at AMD, brings extensive experience in chip packaging from his time at both Intel and AMD. His background includes leading the development of multi-chip modules and the first implementation of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) in a GPU. The leadership also includes co-founders Michael Su (CTO), Michael Alfano, and MeeLan Lee. Michael Su, also an AMD veteran, is responsible for R&D and product development, with deep expertise in semiconductor interconnects and advanced packaging. Michael Alfano serves as the Vice President of Product Engineering.

The firm's business model is centered on being a fabless substrate designer, developing and selling its proprietary "Smart Substrate™" technology. This product enables the heterogeneous integration of multiple integrated circuits (ICs), or chiplets, from potentially different manufacturers into a single package. By doing so, it aims to deliver superior die-to-die interconnects, faster external I/O, and improved power integrity compared to traditional multi-chip modules. This approach allows clients to scale system performance for demanding applications. Chipletz targets clients in high-growth sectors such as artificial intelligence, high-performance computing (HPC), and immersive consumer experiences. The company generates revenue by providing these advanced packaging solutions to chip designers and system builders. In September 2023, Chipletz secured an undisclosed amount in a Series B funding round, with SKC acquiring a significant stake. This investment highlights a strategic partnership aimed at combining SKC's glass substrate manufacturing capacity with Chipletz's packaging engineering expertise.

The core offering, Smart Substrate™, functions as an active interposer, facilitating die-to-die communication and supporting multiple voltage domains from a single supply. A key benefit is the ability to integrate diverse dies, such as CPUs, GPUs, and HBM, from any vendor onto a single platform, effectively turning the substrate into the system itself. This modularity addresses the escalating costs and complexity of advanced semiconductor manufacturing by allowing different functional blocks to be produced using optimal process nodes before being assembled. In a demonstration, the technology successfully reduced the required metal layers from 16 to nine compared to a conventional silicon interposer design. Chipletz collaborates with EDA partners like Siemens to design and validate its complex, high-density packages, ensuring performance for very large designs with millions of connections.

Keywords: advanced packaging, fabless substrate vendor, chiplet integration, Smart Substrate, system-in-package, heterogeneous integration, Moore's Law, high-performance computing, artificial intelligence workloads, die-to-die interconnect, semiconductor packaging, AMD spin-off, Bryan Black, Michael Su, multi-chip module, 2.5D packaging, 3D packaging, semiconductor substrates, Series B funding, SKC, high-bandwidth memory, silicon interposer alternative