Trumpf pioneers ultrashort-pulse laser technology to create precise, high-speed cooling structures within semiconductor packages, addressing thermal challenges in AI chip stacks and pushing the boundaries of advanced packaging.
TRUMPF is pushing laser processing into a new area of semiconductor manufacturing, using ultrashort-pulse technology to make integrated cooling structures for AI chips that are hard to build with conventional methods. At Semicon Taiwan, the company presented a process it says can support industrial-scale production of microstructures inside chip stacks, where heat is becoming a growing constraint as processors are packed ever more tightly together. According to TRUMPF, the approach is aimed at the thermal limits of next-generation AI hardware and is intended to make advanced cooling practical for volume manufacturing.
The problem the company is targeting is not new, but it is becoming more acute. As semiconductor makers move deeper into advanced packaging, multiple chips are stacked or closely linked to increase computing density, which also concentrates heat inside the package. Traditional approaches that cool server racks or whole data halls are often too far removed from the source of the heat to be fully effective. That has prompted chipmakers to explore methods such as microfluidic cooling and heat spreaders, both of which rely on extremely fine structures cut directly into the package or substrate. TRUMPF says its laser process is intended to create those structures where they are needed most.
TRUMPF says the method is particularly relevant for difficult materials such as silicon carbide, which is valued in demanding semiconductor applications because it dissipates heat well but is also very hard to machine. The company said its ultrashort-pulse lasers remove material with micrometre precision, allowing cooling channels and related structures to be formed with a level of accuracy that conventional etching struggles to match. TRUMPF also says the process can run at least five times faster than etching while maintaining surface quality and dimensional control, a combination it argues is necessary if chipmakers are to meet both performance and cost targets.
The broader significance is that cooling is moving from a system-level issue to a packaging-level design concern. TRUMPF’s pitch is not that lasers replace all existing semiconductor fabrication steps, but that they can fill a gap where hardness, precision and throughput intersect. That positions the company alongside a wider industry shift towards more integrated thermal management in AI hardware. The same business is also active in other advanced semiconductor areas, with reporting from Tom’s Hardware noting that TRUMPF, a supplier of lasers used in ASML’s EUV lithography tools, is separately exploring quantum computing to improve the modelling of laser physics.
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