Chiplets - Exploring the Green Potential of Advanced Multi-Chip Packages

In addition to already widely applied multi-chip packages, a new wave of IC packaging integration is currently taking place. The concepts and first implementations of chiplets promise not only higher integration densities, but also touch upon environmental properties of electronics in terms of resource efficiency, critical raw materials, modularity and re-usability of design blocks. This paper presents examples of chiplets and variations of the concept in comparison to earlier multi-chip packages. Many variants of multi-chip packages are already commonly included in smartphones. Therefore, in the context of environmental assessments, it is highly relevant to use suitable IC data sets instead of generic single-chip package data sets. Unless individual data sets for all IC types become the norm throughout the electronics industry, a configurable calculation model is needed to improve the quality of many environmental assessments.