SEMI, the industry association for the global semiconductor and electronics manufacturing supply chain, has named Kulicke & Soffa as the recipient of the 2026 SEMI Award for North America. The award was presented during the CEO Summit Keynotes at SEMICON West in San Francisco on 13 October 2026. The company was recognised for its formic acid in situ bonding technology, a fluxless thermocompression bonding (TCB) approach positioned as a cost-accessible alternative to hybrid bonding for heterogeneous integration applications.
Conventional TCB processes face significant challenges at interconnect pitches of 50 microns and below, where post-bond liquid flux cleaning becomes increasingly difficult and time-consuming. Hybrid bonding addresses some of these limitations but introduces high process complexity and cost that restrict its applicability in volume manufacturing. Kulicke & Soffa's approach combines in situ formic acid oxide reduction with plasma pre-cleaning within its high-volume TCB platforms, aiming to deliver performance comparable to hybrid bonding at a materially lower cost basis.
The technology is implemented in the company's APTURA platform, which integrates multiple oxide removal strategies in a single system. According to Kulicke & Soffa, this architecture enables interconnect pitches below 10 microns, addressing density requirements relevant to heterogeneous integration and silicon photonics packaging. The platform is designed to operate across wafer formats, supporting flexibility in production environments.
Joe Stockunas, president of SEMI Americas, noted the relevance of the technology to AI and high-performance computing, sectors that are driving demand for increasingly dense interconnect solutions. He also highlighted that Kulicke & Soffa is a founding member of SEMI and is marking its 75th anniversary in 2026.
From an advanced packaging perspective, fluxless TCB is gaining traction as chiplet-based architectures proliferate across logic, memory, and photonics applications. The ability to eliminate flux residues at fine pitches without resorting to the full process complexity of hybrid bonding is a practical consideration for contract manufacturers and IDMs scaling heterogeneous integration in volume. Kulicke & Soffa's APTURA platform enters a competitive field that includes equipment from ASM Pacific Technology and Besi, among others, making the SEMI recognition a notable marker of the technology's industry standing.
Quelle: SEMICON Europa – https://www.semi.org/en/semi-press-release/kulicke-and-soffa-earns-2026-semi-award-for-north-america-at-semicon-west
