What Are Chiplets?

Chiplets are modular silicon pieces designed for tasks like processing, memory, or I/O. Unlike traditional single-die chips, they allow designers to combine pre-built modules. Advanced packaging technologies, like 2.5D interposers or 3D stacking, connect these chiplets into high-performance systems.

Flexibility in Design

Chiplets let designers mix and match modules from different vendors, enabling custom solutions for specific needs. For instance, combining a high-performance CPU chiplet with a specialized AI accelerator allows tailored designs without building everything from scratch. This modularity simplifies the process, cutting complexity and speeding up development.

Better Manufacturing Yield

Large monolithic chips are prone to defects, lowering yields and increasing costs. Chiplets divide functionality across smaller dies. This boosts wafer yield and reduces waste. This approach is especially effective for cutting-edge nodes where defects are more common.

Lower Costs for Small Designers

Chiplets reduce ASIC design and verification time by enabling the use of pre-validated components, streamlining the development process and ensuring faster time-to-market.

Chiplets reduce costs by eliminating the need to design an entire chip. Small ASIC designers can license chiplets for common functions like memory, accelerators, controllers, or I/O, and focus on proprietary components. This minimizes risks and non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs. As the ecosystem grows and packaging improves, economies of scale will make chiplets even more affordable.

Licensing and Specialization

Small designers can now license chiplets from a growing menu of options provided by major vendors. Designers can select and integrate pre-validated components to create highly specialized ASICs with reduced upfront investment. This model significantly lowers barriers to entry, allowing small, nimble players to compete in lucrative and niche markets. It’s a modern David-and-Goliath story, where small innovators can challenge industry giants.

The Future of Chiplets

To thrive, chiplets need standardization to ensure compatibility across vendors. Already, Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) provides the framework for seamless communication between chiplets, creating a unified ecosystem that fosters collaboration and innovation. As packaging methods become cheaper, foundries and packaging houses are investing in chiplet-friendly processes, driving broader adoption.

Licensing Challenges

While chiplets offer significant benefits, licensing intellectual property (IP) cores requires careful attention. For example, because many IP core vendors are vertically integrated, ASIC designers must ensure that, for test and verification purposes, their license contracts allow reasonable sharing of the final design with companies that may compete with a vendor. Poorly structured agreements can lead to unexpected legal disputes or restrictions on use. By working with legal experts to draft and review contracts, designers can protect themselves from possible infringement litigation.

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Saman Taherian

Lapin & Taherian

Attorneys At Law