Last month, there emerged reports of Taiwan-based TSMC winning exclusive rights to produce the A10 processor expected to debut with next year’s iPhone 7. Now, it has been suggested that TSMC’s 3D IC technology may have led to Apple’s decision to hand the company this lucrative contract.
The suggestion comes from MacRumors, which points out that a major inclusion in this contract is, according to Taiwan’s Commercial Times, TSMC’s InFO WLP technology. The acronym here stands for “integrated fan-out wafer-level packaging”, and refers to one of many different 3D IC technologies.
InFO WLP could appeal to Apple for several reasons. All 3D IC technologies pledge to deliver enhanced performance and efficiency through further integrating components in one package, while TSMC engineers have revealed in a paper abstract that InFO WLP also means more thermal advantages and better-performing radio frequency components like cellular modems.
Uptake of 3D IC technologies has been hindered by the usually hefty costs and processing implications. However, InFO WLP seems more convenient for Apple, which typically packs its newest and most advanced features, such as 3D Touch and 4K video, into its iPhones before any other of its product lines.
