UTAC Holdings Ltd. (“UTAC”), a global semiconductor test and assembly services provider is pleased to announce that it has, via its subsidiary UTAC Headquarters Pte. Ltd. secured a license for relevant patents relating to imaging ball grid array (iBGA) packaging technology from a patent licensing company. Under the patent license, UTAC and its affiliates have full rights to manufacture, use and sell products utilising iBGA packaging technology that is claimed in the licensed patents.
The licensed technology will be primarily used for the assembly of image sensor packages for automotive and industrial camera applications, as well as other sectors such as security, computing and consumer. Both primary market sectors are growing rapidly, particularly as more automakers include multiple imaging cameras in their vehicles to support advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). The use of these cameras is expected to grow rapidly and significantly as vehicles ultimately become fully autonomous. The industrial market sector is also showing strong growth as a result of rapidly growing applications such as machine vision.
UTAC is already experienced in high volume image sensor assembly and test, especially for Tier One customers in the industrial, consumer and automotive marketplaces. These customers demand very high quality, something that UTAC ensures through their Class 10 cleanroom environment that is dedicated to the assembly of front-end wafers into packages (including the new iBGA) and subsequent testing.
As image sensing technology advances, UTAC provides designers with the ability to migrate to smaller formfactors with an optimized substrate design.
The new iBGA packaging technology is ready for manufacturing and is qualified to relevant automotive standards. Several Tier One automotive device suppliers have already expressed an interest in utilizing this technology.