The Development and Current Status of Chiplet Technology

Introduction

The semiconductor industry is undergoing significant transformation, with the application scope of chiplet design solutions continuously expanding. Interestingly, 60 years ago, Gordon Moore predicted this trend in his famous paper, Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits. Moore not only proposed the well-known law of transistor density growth but also pointed out that breaking down large systems into smaller, interconnected functional modules could be more economically advantageous. This perspective has become increasingly important in today’s semiconductor field.

Economic and Technological Drivers

The adoption of chiplet technology is primarily driven by economic factors and technological constraints. Modern semiconductor manufacturing faces significant challenges, with the price of EUV lithography machines exceeding $100 million. The practical limitation on chip sizes today is around 800 square millimeters, imposing significant constraints on building larger-scale systems. This limitation, combined with the rising costs of advanced process manufacturing, makes chiplet design solutions an attractive alternative.

Figure 1: The evolution of AMD/Xilinx’s chiplet-based products, reflecting the advancement of multi-chip implementation in high-performance computing.

Another key economic factor supporting the adoption of chiplet solutions is the uneven progress of different circuit component process technologies. While logic circuits continue to benefit from node advancements, SRAM and analog circuits lag in process improvements. This disparity significantly increases the cost of integrating these components into advanced process nodes.

Figure 2: The difference in process technology advancements between SRAM and logic circuits. The red line represents the ideal synchronized progress, while the black line represents actual trends.

High-Performance Applications and Market Growth

Chiplet solutions have achieved remarkable success in the high-performance computing sector, particularly in artificial intelligence systems. High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) has become a crucial component, currently priced at about six times that of DDR5 memory, with its production capacity fully booked until 2025. Major players such as NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD have widely adopted chiplet designs in their high-end products, most of which are priced above $10,000.

Figure 3: Forecasted revenue growth trends for the chiplet market by 2030, indicating strong expansion potential.

Advanced Cooling Solutions and System Integration

The power demands of modern chiplet systems continue to rise, with individual chips consuming over 400 watts, necessitating advanced thermal management solutions. The industry is transitioning from traditional air cooling to liquid cooling systems to enhance computing density and performance.

Figure 4: A comparison between air-cooled (32 GPUs) and liquid-cooled (72 GPUs) systems, demonstrating the performance benefits of advanced cooling solutions.

Future Development of Chiplet Design

The semiconductor industry is moving toward more standardized chiplet implementation solutions. The concept of a "Chiplet chassis" has emerged as a potential backend service, creating standardized interfaces for various applications. This approach allows smaller companies to focus on developing specific components while leveraging standardized interfaces and packaging solutions.

Figure 5: A decision-making flowchart illustrating systematic choices between chiplet chassis and custom solutions.

Figure 6: An illustration of wafer-level interconnect substrates integrating chiplets and substrates assembly, showcasing potential future enhancements in computing density.

There is still significant room for optimization, particularly in reducing supply voltages. While some designs have achieved operation at 0.6V, most high-performance applications still run at around 1V, posing challenges for high-current management in kilowatt-scale devices.

As technology matures, industry interest in standardization efforts is growing. For instance, Arm’s chiplet system architecture aims to accelerate ecosystem development. It is expected that chiplet technology will expand beyond high-performance applications into broader market sectors, enabling new applications and design methodologies.

References

[1] B. Pangrle, "Chiplets: Where Are We Today?," Semiconductor Engineering, Feb. 5, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://semiengineering.com/chiplets-where-are-we-today/ [Accessed: Feb. 6, 2025]