The 2019 MME Jack T. Kimbrell Distinguished lecture was delivered by Gaurang Choksi, Vice-President of Technology Development and Director of Assembly & Test Technology Development Core Competencies at Intel Corporation.

The topic of the lecture was heterogeneous electronic packaging, which is the crucial technology of housing and interconnecting diverse components within a computer chip.

Speaking to an audience of primarily engineering students and faculty, Choksi highlighted how cutting-edge applications, from artificial intelligence to big data to the Internet of Things (IoT), all have one key thing in common: powerful integrated circuits (ICs) on small, densely packed chips.

“The rapid growth in many areas of computing, memory, communications and networking is leading to massive demand for more powerful, efficient, densely packed chips,” said Choksi.

This also means that there is a need for better techniques to integrate varied, dissimilar components within the ICs. Choksi presented such techniques in his lecture, which included novel 2-D, 2.5-D and 3-D packaging architectures and designs with multiple levels of integration.

The fast rate of progress in the field of heterogeneous packaging will require significant improvements in modeling and simulation software tools, along with measurement tools for design, assembly manufacturing and testing, according to Choksi. Similarly, there needs to be innovation in materials for mechanical integrity, signal integrity and power delivery, he said.

“There are many challenges that will have to be addressed along the way to enabling efficient design, materials selection and assembly and test manufacturing processes,” said Choksi. He also discussed the trade-off decisions involved in electrical, thermal and structural integrity performance, and the need for new competencies moving forward.

Choksi joined Intel in 1988, after receiving his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. During his 30 plus year tenure at Intel, he has contributed to various areas including structural analysis and testing, electrical and physical design and analysis of multi-chip modules, design/analysis tool development for packages/boards, and thermal technologies and solutions.

Choksi is a recipient of the Intel Achievement Award and serves on several academic and national advisory and review boards.