Motorola, Fujitsu line up MCM devices

Electronic News, March 10, 1997

Cupertino, Calif.--In the latest developments from the multichip module world, MicroModule Systems, Inc. (MMS) here and Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector last week said the new miniature Motorola VirtuoVue virtual display device is implemented using a glass thin film multichip substrate from MMS. The first implementation of Motorola's new display technology is inside the portable SmartVue smart card reader from south-of-France-based Gemplus. Meanwhile, Fujitsu Microelectronics (FMI) has unveiled a pair of new Pentium processor-based MCMs for mobile computing applications. Both new modules combine Intel's Mobile Pentium processor with MMX technology and the 430TX PCIset with 256K L2 cache memory, and discrete devices in a module that measures 42mm x 40mm (ceramic) and 44mm x 32mm (laminate.)

The mobile module from Fujitsu will be available in quantities in the spring for $50 each or less in high volume, minus the processor. Intel recently began offering its mobile Pentium processor with MMX technology in die form, targeting such applications as mini-notebooks, as part of its ongoing SmartDie program (EN, Feb. 24).

The Motorola VirtuoVue display device contains a gallium arsenide display element and two flip chip silicon die, integrated onto a 25mm square transparent glass thin film substrate from MicroModule Systems. The two-layer substrate, constructed using copper traces as narrow as 10 microns insulated with Dow Cyclotene (photo-BCB) dielectric, was built by MicroModule Systems' thinfilm interconnect foundry on 150mm (6-inch) glass wafers. The substrate and bare die form a single MCM. Michael Grove, MMS chairman/CEO, said, "Our foundry business unit is delighted to provide high-density interconnect solutions to the world's premiere supplier of portable messaging and communications products," and future implementations of VirtuoVue technology "will continue to revolutionize the way people on the go communicate with each other."

Marlene Begay, Motorola display technology manager, said "Motorola is delivering on the vision of high resolution, low power displays that will drive the next generation of pocket portable communication products." Each Motorola VirtuoVue display device contains 240 columns by 144 rows of amber pixels within a 12-cubic centimeter form factor, and is able to display one-eighth of a full VGA screen image to the user. The VirtuoVue display itself is smaller, faster, and requires significantly less power than a comparable LCD-based implementation, and can display high-resolution text and graphics (including photographs or Chinese characters) using 16 levels of amber "grayscale." She said full-color VGA resolution will be available within three years.

According to Michel Leduc, Gemplus Contact Reader business unit manager, "SmartVue is a unique pocket smartcard reader giving the card holder the ability to view the increasing amount of information stored in smart cards for applications such as debit/credit, health care, or identity cards." Each SmartVue smart card reader contains one Motorola VirtuoVue virtual display device. When held up to the eye of the user, the smart card reader presents a very sharp image that appears to be projected onto a 17-inch monitor screen approximately three feet from the viewer.

Fujitsu's two new mobile computing MCMs are available in two versions, ceramic and laminate deposition technology. Unlike other MCM-based architectures, modules do not require replacement of the computer's motherboard, and provide optimal thermal solutions for lighter, thinner mobile system designs, it was claimed. Intel worked closely with Fujitsu on the design and layout of both implementations, Fujitsu added.

Fujitsu implemented both MCMs based on an Intel reference design of a Pentium processor/PCI-based subsystem for current-generation, mobile computing applications. "The companies have ensured that the MCMs take full advantage of today's MCM technology and Intel's SmartDie products to achieve a cost-effective MPU subsystem that consumes less than half the area of existing implementations," it was said. Fujitsu will exhibit the new modules at the Portable by Design Conference & Exhibition March 25-27 in Santa Clara. Intel and Fujitsu are jointly presenting a paper on a previous-generation Pentium based processor at the conference.

The new MCMs address the rapidly changing performance objectives of OEMs for new generations of mobile computing products, including smaller form factors, optimal heat dissipation and high reliability. The reduced size of the modules allows OEMs to develop lighter and thinner mobile products with motherboards that are smaller, less complex and less expensive than current versions, it was added. The MCMs have already been evaluated by several major OEMs.

"Full-featured, mobile computing products are the fastest growing segment of today's PC market," said Dennis Stephenson, Advanced Packaging business manager for FMI. "Designers and OEMs require versatile, modular solutions that optimize system performance for a wide range of frequencies and cache sizes, These MCMs provide very cost-effective solutions that enable OEMs to develop motherboard designs to achieve quicker time-to-market."