Indiana Integrated Circuits

Indiana Integrated Circuits (IIC), LLC, founded in 2009, is a specialized firm focused on commercializing a groundbreaking microchip interconnect technology known as Quilt Packaging (QP). The company originated from research conducted at the University of Notre Dame by co-founders Professor Gary Bernstein and Jason Kulick. Their work addresses fundamental limitations in System-in-Package integration, such as thermal management and bandwidth issues, by providing a method to connect microchips with monolithic-like performance.

The core of IIC's business is its patented Quilt Packaging technology. This process involves creating conductive "nodules" on the edges of microchips, allowing them to be tiled together edge-to-edge with gaps as small as five microns. This forms a larger "quilt" or "metachip" from smaller, individual chiplets. A key benefit of this approach is heterogeneous integration, enabling chips made from different materials (like Silicon, Gallium Arsenide, or Gallium Nitride) and from different manufacturing processes to be combined into a single, optimized system. This allows designers to partition large, complex systems into smaller, higher-yielding chiplets, which can reduce costs and improve time-to-market without sacrificing performance. The QP interconnects exhibit exceptionally low signal loss, with less than 1 dB of insertion loss demonstrated at frequencies up to 220 GHz.

IIC's business model revolves around licensing its QP technology and providing specialized fabrication services. The company works with clients to integrate QP into their existing manufacturing flows, develops application-specific solutions, and performs proof-of-concept prototyping. Its services cater to entities in high-performance sectors, including microwave/RF systems, large format focal plane arrays, power electronics, and high-performance computing. Through an agreement with the University of Notre Dame, IIC utilizes advanced facilities for fabrication, testing, and imaging to support its R&D and prototyping services.

Keywords: Quilt Packaging, microchip interconnect, heterogeneous integration, chiplet, System-in-Package, semiconductor packaging, monolithic performance, metachip, Gary Bernstein, Jason Kulick, University of Notre Dame spin-out, advanced packaging, RF interconnect, chip-to-chip interconnect, semiconductor R&D, microfabrication services, high-bandwidth interconnect, low-loss interconnect, semiconductor licensing, advanced electronics