Mark Luke Farrugia new general manager of CITC

PRESS RELEASE | Nijmegen, the Netherlands | January 16, 2023

Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) today announced the appointment of Mark Luke Farrugia as its new general manager. As of March 1, Farrugia will take over the responsibilities from general manager Jeroen van den Brand, who fulfilled the role ad interim.

Farrugia has an extensive background in the semiconductor backend industry. Prior to this appointment, he worked for almost sixteen years at NXP Semiconductors and most recently as technical director at Nexperia Semiconductors.

He explains why he is now switching to CITC: “Innovation work within semiconductor packaging has been my greatest professional passion for the past 27 years. Breakthrough innovation requires a dedicated organization having the right focus, knowledge and passion and determination, and I see this in CITC”.

In his position as general manager, Farrugia will be responsible for the further development of CITC as an internationally distinctive and well-recognized center of semiconductor and photonic chip packaging technology. “CITC is a young organization, and therefore needs to put itself on the semiconductor packaging map. This should be done by understanding the needs and expectations of the industry, building and enhancing the right competences, and by collaborating with other organizations. I look forward to working with the CITC team, as well as scouting and mentoring the next generation, dealing with the highly complex puzzle of understanding what the various industry stakeholders would like to achieve, and ultimately, to delivering results that have a meaningful impact on the industry.”

Roel Fonville, chair of the CITC Supervisory Board, expresses that this is what qualified Farrugia for the position at CITC: “The Supervisory Board is enthusiastic about the appointment of Mark Luke Farrugia as general manager of CITC. Mark Luke has substantive expertise, an up-to-date business network, entrepreneurial thinking and a strong drive to further internationalize CITC as an innovation center in the field of packaging.”

The position of general manager became vacant following the sad passing of CITC founder and first general manager Barry Peet in July 2022.

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About CITC

Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) is a non-proﬁt joint innovation center specializing in heterogeneous integration and advanced chip packaging technology. CITC has created an effective ecosystem in which companies, research and educational institutes work on bridging the gap between academics and industry. CITC’s contribution to the ecosystem is to provide access to innovation, infrastructure and education. CITC was founded in 2019 with strategic partners TNO and Delft University of Technology and powered by Holland Semiconductors. It is also supported by local and regional governments.
www.citc.org

Contact

Christian Ketelaars, Marketing & Communications Officer
E christian.ketelaars@citc.org
M +31 (0)6 48 15 42 92

November 25, 2022 – On November 23, delegates of the Provincial States of Gelderland visited CITC and the Noviotech Campus. As one of the subsidy providers, the province of Gelderland has been actively involved in CITC since 2019. We were proud to present what we have accomplished with their investment over the past 3.5 years.

CITC journey

First speaker of the day was Bert Krikke, managing director of Noviotech Campus. He informed the guests about the ambitious plans of the campus. Jeroen van den Brand, CITC’s general manager, was next. In his presentation he took the delegates through the ‘CITC journey’: what we have done so far, where we are now and what the future plans and ambitions are. To complement his story, Joep Stokkermans, innovation manager at Nexperia, and as such a customer of CITC, shared his experiences.

Lab tour

Final part of the visit was a quick tour through the CITC labs. Here, the delegates could see how we provide access to innovation, infrastructure and education in real life. Next to the state-of-the-art equipment, they saw bachelor students of the Semiconductor Packaging minor at work.

Photos by Sami Al Saiadi – Province of Gelderland

October 26, 2022 – At the recently held European Microwave Week conference in Milan, our colleague Paola Escobari successfully presented her work on the characterization of the dielectric properties of commercially available low-loss UV-curable resins from 60 GHz to 90 GHz.

Two dielectric properties

Innovation meets collaboration

Collaboration is vitally important in innovation. CITC has created an effective ecosystem in which companies, research and educational institutes work on bridging the gap between academics and industry.

Paola’s work is a perfect example of multi-party collaboration. She is an Engineering Doctorate student at Eindhoven University of Technology. Her work, however, is funded by and in collaboration with CITC.

In this particular project, she was supported by TNO Radar Technology department and TNO Holst Centre. The TNO branches not only manufactured the material samples used in this work, they also provided support and access to specialized equipment. In addition, the project was supported by Sartomer’s N3xtDimension product line and, finally, Antennex provided access to the Fabry-Perot resonator.

Photo credit to Elmine Meyer, Eindhoven University of Technology

October 17, 2022 – On October 10, the industry participants of the Semiconductor Packaging University Program 2022 received their certificates. Some of them will continue with the practical part of the program, together with the bachelor student participants.

International students

The third edition of the program started on August 29 in hybrid form. Most students attended the live sessions that were held at the Noviotech Campus, but due to the geographical distance, some followed the program via a live stream. Education consultant Joop Bruines, also responsible for coordinating the program, comments: “This year, we had participants not only from Germany, but also from Brazil and the U.S. It is great to see that our program is being followed more and more internationally.”

Mix of bachelor students and semicon staff

Like the previous edition, this year’s program was offered as a minor to bachelor students and industry professionals. Bruines: “We have a nice mix of people. In addition to participants from companies such as NXP and Nexperia, there are eight bachelor students from HAN and similar Dutch universities of applied sciences and from Rhein-Whaal Hochschule in Cleves.” He is also pleased that seven of this year’s participants are female. “That is a first for us. As everyone knows there are too few women in high-tech. We hope that with our program we can contribute to an increase of women in the semicon industry in the future.”

Tailor-made program

CITC and HAN University of Applied Sciences (HAN), developed this program tailored to the specific needs of semiconductor companies. The program focuses on the design and manufacturing of semiconductor packages and the associated assembly, reliability and test techniques. It includes a practical assignment that will be carried out on the premises of either a semiconductor company or CITC.

On October 10, the last lectures of the theoretical part of the program were given. Afterwards, the industry participants who subscribed for this part only received a certificate for attending the course. The bachelor students and some of the industry participants will continue the next part of the program which consists of practical assignments.

Fourth edition

The next edition of the Semiconductor Packaging University Program is scheduled for August/September 2023. Interested in following the next edition of this program? Please contact us for more information or to receive the registration form.

August 29, 2022 – Today, the third edition of the Semiconductor Packaging University Program started at the Novio Tech Campus in Nijmegen. Twenty four participants attended the program live and four followed the live stream. Over the next five months, they will be introduced to the semiconductor industry and delve into the final step of chip manufacturing: chip packaging.

Tailor-made program

Mix of bachelor students and semicon staff

Like the previous edition, this year’s program will be offered as a minor to bachelor students and industry professionals. Joop Bruines, education consultant at CITC and also working at HAN, is happy with the full classroom: “We have a nice mix of people. In addition to industry participants from companies such as NXP and Nexperia, there are eight bachelor students from HAN and similar Dutch universities of applied sciences and from Rhein-Whaal Hochschule in Cleves.” He is also pleased that seven of this year’s participants are female. “That is a first for us. As everyone knows there are too few women in high-tech. We hope that with our program we can contribute to an increase of women in the semicon industry in the future.”

Hybrid format

The program has a hybrid format and as such offers the opportunity to participate when traveling to Nijmegen is not an option. Bruines: “Four students will be following the live stream, so we just went live in the U.S. and in Brazil!”

A printed circuit board serves as an aid at the start of Henk van Zeijl’s lecture

In his introductory speech, Bruines emphasized the importance of chips in everyday life and the need for well-trained people in this field. As a large part of the program takes place on the Novio Tech Campus, its director Bert Krikke gave a brief overview of the campus and the ambition to create an attractive ecosystem for companies in health and high-tech. After his presentation, Henk van Zeijl from TU Delft took over with the first lecture.

Interested in following the next edition of this program? Check out the program information or contact us.

August 22, 2022 – Last week, CITC welcomed a new addition to its lab: a high-resolution desktop Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The microscope combines an optical camera for never-lost navigation with detailed imaging and analysis. This should enable a completely new electron microscopy experience.

High-quality images

The high brightness offered by the SEM makes it easy to obtain high-quality images with many details. The SEM provides accurate and reproducible results that allow us to obtain the quality information we need to detect failures in samples early, and adjust our research process when needed. It is a good addition to our existing lab infrastructure.

Access to infrastructure

CITC’s lab facilities support the innovation programs and contribute to education through internships and MSc/PhD programs. Furthermore, our lab serves as demo and application lab for new types of equipment and materials. The lab is available to third parties to enable them to develop and implement new packaging solutions.

More information about the SEM

PRESS RELEASE | Nijmegen, the Netherlands and Irvine, CA | July 19, 2022

Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) and Henkel announced today that the organizations have formalized an agreement to collaborate on the development of high-thermal die attach solutions for RF and power electronics. Under the terms of the partnership, Henkel will supply commercialized and developmental pressureless sintering die attach formulations and CITC will provide testing and analysis of the materials within next-generation package designs.

CITC’s Thermal High-Performance Packaging program focuses on thermo-mechanical design strategies and device packaging platforms that integrate low-stress, high-reliability rugged interconnect solutions. As die attach and molding materials are often limiting factors for the optimal operation of RF and power packages, Henkel is the ideal partner or innovation in this application area.

In addition to ongoing work in its state-of-the-art R&D centers, Henkel wants to accelerate time-to-market for its semiconductor packaging materials through strategic relationships across industry, government, and academia. CITC, which collaborates with leading power and RF device packaging companies, provides a unique opportunity to characterize and analyze Henkel’s high-thermal die attach formulations as an enabler for leading-edge device designs.

“Henkel’s pressureless sintering die attach materials are already proven in certain mobile applications,” explained Ramachandran “Ram” Trichur, the company’s Global Market Segment Head, Semiconductor Packaging Materials. “We want to extend that success to other sectors such as automotive, where large, high-power chips are the norm. Our pressureless sintering solutions are unique because they deliver the simple, low-stress processability of conventional die attach adhesives and very high thermal conductivity capabilities. The work at CITC will augment our in-house projects, allowing additional performance and reliability validation.”

The new die attach technology has the potential to enable the replacement of lead (Pb) within RF and power semiconductor devices that incorporate larger die on copper leadframes, allowing the introduction of high operating temperature gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) power die technologies. Many of CITC’s partners are actively integrating these new chip structures, making the cooperative project an excellent proving ground for Henkel’s pressureless sintering platform.

“In Henkel, we have found a material innovator that will enable the development of power and RF devices with a holistic approach that leverages the latest in die attach technology,” concluded CITC General Manager, Jeroen van den Brand. “With many major power device manufacturers based in Europe, and in Nijmegen in particular, we view this partnership as vital to satisfying the current and future demands within these important market sectors.”

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About CITC

About Henkel

Henkel operates globally with a well-balanced and diversified portfolio. The company holds leading positions with its three business units in both industrial and consumer businesses thanks to strong brands, innovations and technologies. Henkel Adhesive Technologies is the global leader in the adhesives market – across all industry segments worldwide. In its Laundry & Home Care and Beauty Care businesses, Henkel holds leading positions in many markets and categories around the world. Founded in 1876, Henkel looks back on more than 140 years of success. In 2021, Henkel reported sales of more than 20 billion euros and adjusted operating profit of about 2.7 billion euros. Henkel employs about 53,000 people globally – a passionate and highly diverse team, united by a strong company culture, a common purpose to create sustainable value, and shared values. As a recognized leader in sustainability, Henkel holds top positions in many international indices and rankings. Henkel’s preferred shares are listed in the German stock index DAX.
www.henkel-adhesives.com/electronics

Contact

CITC: Marco Koelink | M +31 6 15 15 66 41 | E marco.koelink@citc.org
Henkel: Ruud de Wit | M +31 6 43 37 21 08 | E ruud.dewit@henkel.com

July 12, 2022 – We are deeply affected by the death of our colleague and figurehead of CITC: Barry Peet.

As co-founder, first employee and general manager, he was the driving force behind the informal, open culture in our organization and the many partnerships with companies, research institutions and knowledge institutes.

Barry obtained an MSc in Electronic Engineering from the University of Twente. With a background in both ICT and semiconductors, he started his first company in mobile solutions in 1999 during his studies. After 13 years leading this company, Barry became managing director of BCSEMI (currently: Holland Semiconductors). In this position, he helped strengthen and expand the Dutch semiconductor ecosystem. From 2017, Barry initiated and founded CITC and moved to the position of General Manager at CITC in 2019. As General Manager, Barry was responsible for the overall management of CITC.

CITC would not be what it is today without him. We will miss his energy, enthusiasm and enormous drive. Our thoughts and condolences go out to his family, relatives and friends. We wish them a lot of strength in this difficult period.

Employees, management and Supervisory Board CITC

April 21, 2022 – On April 25, CITC’s Henry Martin will present his work on in-situ reliability monitoring of power packages using a Thermal Test Chip at EuroSimE. The 23rd International Conference on thermal, mechanical and multi-physics simulation and experiments in microelectronics and microsystems is held in Malta.

Thermal test chip

Henry will discuss the crucial need to meet stringent automotive standards and to better understand the critical failure mechanisms of high-power electronics to improve their reliability. To that end, he* developed an in-situ reliability monitoring setup. This is capable of actively measuring the thermal performance of a package during lifetime testing.

A Thermal Test Chip (TTC – depicted above) assembled into a Power Quad Flat No-lead (PQFN) package was employed as a test vehicle for non-destructive reliability assessment. The TTC comprises resistive heaters as a heat source and resistive temperature elements for measuring the thermal response.

Transient thermal behavior

The team evaluated the transient thermal behavior based on the contribution of a heat source to a temperature field. They measured the temperature distribution at multiple spatial positions. The experimental results provide insights into the thermal properties’ influence on the thermal behavior of the package.

A compact electro-thermal model based on analogies was developed to deconvolute and analyze the transient thermal measurements. The results of the compact model correlate with the experimental measurements, and the model’s accuracy was verified using finite element simulations. The development of such thermal characterization experiments and computationally inexpensive models assist in further understanding the impact of failures in advancing high-power density electronics.

More information

If you’d like to know more about Henry’s work or the full publication, please contact him per email.

*in this project, Henry worked together with Romina Sattari[2], Edsger Smits[1], Henk van Zeijl[2], Willem van Driel[2,3] and Kouchi Zhang[2].

[1] Chip Integration Technology Center
[2] Electronic Components, Technology & Materials (ECTM) – TU Delft
[3] Signify Research

PRESS RELEASE | Nijmegen, the Netherlands, April 12, 2022

Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Electronics & Photonics Innovation Centre (EPIC) in Torbay, UK. The move offers an exciting opportunity for both organizations to collaborate and benefit from the synergies that exist between the two centers.

EPIC is located within a rich cluster of microelectronics and photonics packaging specialists. The center offers businesses access to labs, offices, >€3M of prototyping capability and a classified cleanroom. Dutch-owned EFFECT Photonics have chosen EPIC as their R&D facility and have benefited from extensive local funding to support this growth. Other businesses located within EPIC include Spanish MEMS innovators Nanusens and photonics packaging specialists Bay Photonics.

CITC is a non-profit innovation center specializing in heterogeneous integration and advanced chip packaging technology for semiconductor and photonic applications. It is a place where companies, research and educational institutes work together on bridging the gap between academics and industry and creating a new generation of packages providing smart, safe and rugged housing for chips.

Share information

The MoU will see both parties sharing information with their respective businesses to showcase the technical capability and services on offer at both centers. EPIC and CITC will also be exploring opportunities to add each other’s centers to future funding bids with a view of generating additional revenue for both projects.

Both centers have close links to relevant universities and higher education partners therefore encouraging collaboration between academia will also be explored.

Many opportunities for collaboration

EPIC Centre Director, Wayne Loschi, is excited about the partnership: “There are so many clear opportunities for collaboration which will benefit our respective centers and our businesses. We’d love to see our companies working closer with CITC to improve innovation and equally we’d welcome more Dutch companies to join EFFECT Photonics within EPIC”.

CITC Business Development Manager, Marco Koelink, is also looking forward to starting the relationship: “EPIC offers a rich ecosystem in microelectronic and photonic R&D and assembly activities. Collaboration, especially in photonic packaging is crucial to develop high-volume and low-cost solutions for meaningful application areas such as communications, medical and automotive. CITC and EPIC jointly strengthen their value proposition in providing access to innovation, infrastructure and education”.

Contact

To find out more about CITC, its technology, programmes, activities and the services it offers please contact: Marco Koelink

To find out more about EPIC, accessing its technicial capability, regional funding up to £150k and support obtaining UK R&D tax credits please contact: Wayne Loschi