VON ARDENNE has launched a HiPIMS deposition platform aimed at panel-level packaging, a market the German equipment maker has not served at scale before. Semiconductor Digest and EEJournal both reported the release from SEMICON West.
HiPIMS, or high-power impulse magnetron sputtering, delivers a dense, highly ionized plasma that produces better film adhesion and step coverage than conventional sputtering. That matters as package substrates grow more complex and demand thinner, more uniform barrier and seed layers.
The strategic bet is on panel-level packaging, where manufacturers process large rectangular panels instead of round wafers. Panels cut substrate cost substantially because they waste far less material at the edges and can carry many more units per pass.
Adoption has been slow because panel handling, warpage control and fine-line patterning are all harder than on round substrates. Equipment suppliers have to solve those problems before the economics work.
VON ARDENNE is positioning the tool inside a broader packaging buildout. SEMI expects 300mm fab equipment spending to reach $227B by 2029, and advanced packaging is one of the fastest-growing slices, driven by AI accelerators that need high-bandwidth memory placed alongside the compute die.
Pricing and availability were not disclosed. The company also showed the platform at SEMICON West in the same week it announced the launch.
