Amkor Partners With Sigrity to Enhance SoC Power Delivery Performance

CHANDLER, Ariz., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Amkor Technology, Inc., (NASDAQ: AMKR) today announced that it is working with EDA tool provider Sigrity, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., to develop a package design template library that will be incorporated into Sigrity's EDA tools. This work specifically addresses flip-chip and high-end wirebond packages for system-on-chip (SoC) applications, and is based on Amkor's expertise in SoC technology.

"Today, silicon designers often do not have the up-to-date EDA software tools needed to rapidly and accurately execute design projects," said Nozad Karim, Amkor's vice president of applications engineering and characterization. "Electronics end-product design parameters, including package variations, continue to evolve so quickly that it is difficult for EDA tool providers to stay ahead of designers' needs."

Sigrity's niche is providing power and signal integrity EDA software solutions that are crucial design factors for SoC. "By integrating Amkor's advanced SoC package design knowledge into Sigrity's tools, SoC designers will be able to generate a complete system-level power grid analysis," said Karim. "This will help silicon designers to design faster and get designs right the first time."

With increasing circuit speeds and decreasing power supply voltage, IC power integrity issues are becoming critical and more dependent on packages. The package design library being jointly developed by Amkor and Sigrity will generate various templates from package design parameters, such as die size, the number of bump rows, bump pitch, etc. These parameters will be drawn from Amkor's advanced fabrication methods for SoC.

"Amkor customers will benefit from this joint effort because it will help them layout reliable system-level power delivery, including crucial package parameters, before we begin working with them on the actual package design," Karim commented. "This kind of up-front EDA work with built-in package parameters ensures that the final silicon-and-package combination is done with few, if any iterations."

Jiayuan Fang, president of Sigrity, commented, "We are excited to provide mutual customers with advanced capabilities incorporating Sigrity's EDA expertise with Amkor's package-design expertise. The end result of our joint work will be dramatically shortened product development cycles and reduced costs for SoC designers."

About Sigrity

Sigrity, Inc., a privately held U.S. company incorporated in 1998, delivers advanced software tools that analyze power and signal integrity in chips, packages and boards. Sigrity's patented methodologies run orders of magnitude faster than general-purpose methods, helping leading companies in the semiconductor, computer, graphics, communications and networking industries ensure high performance and reduce time to market. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., with direct sales and global distribution through worldwide representatives. For more information, please access: http://www.sigrity.com/.

About Amkor

Amkor Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMKR) is a leading provider of contract semiconductor assembly and test services. The company offers semiconductor companies and electronics OEMs a complete set of microelectronic design and manufacturing services. More information on Amkor is available from the company's SEC filings and on Amkor's web site: http://www.amkor.com/.

   Company Contact:                    Agency Contact:
   Jeffrey Luth                        Martijn Pierik
   Amkor Technology, Inc.              Positio Public Relations, Inc.
   Phone: 480-821-5000  ext. 5130      Phone: (408) 453-2400
   E-mail: jluth@amkor.com             E-mail: martijn@positiopr.com

CONTACT: Jeffrey Luth of Amkor Technology, Inc., +1-480-821-5000,
ext. 5130, jluth@amkor.com; or Martijn Pierik of Positio Public Relations,
Inc., +1-408-453-2400, martijn@positiopr.com, for Amkor Technology, Inc.

Web site: http://www.sigrity.com/

Web site: http://www.amkor.com/