High-Performance Packaging Substrates for Chiplet Integration: Materials, Process and Reliability

Dear Colleagues,

The continuous increase in computational demand, driven by artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and data-intensive applications, has led to a dramatic expansion in chiplet integration scales. As the number of interconnected chiplets grows, the corresponding packaging substrate dimensions and complexity increase substantially, creating significant challenges in electrical performance, mechanical stability, and thermal management. High-performance packaging substrates are therefore critical enablers for these advanced architectures, providing the structural, electrical, and thermal support required to maintain device reliability and performance. A deep understanding of substrate materials, interface engineering, process–structure–stress interactions, and warpage control is essential for addressing these challenges and advancing next-generation high-performance chip technologies.

We welcome contributions that address both the mechanistic understanding of substrate materials and their interfaces, and the engineering applications for warpage control, reliability enhancement, and system-level integration. This Special Issue provides a platform for researchers and engineers to share innovative strategies, experimental insights, and modeling approaches that advance the performance, manufacturability, and reliability of next-generation packaging substrates.

Topics for submission include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Advanced resin systems, including epoxy molding compounds (EMC) and underfill (UF), for high-performance packaging substrates;
2. Substrate materials design, including ABF, BT, and low-k/low-loss dielectrics;
3. Copper metallization, microstructure control, and interface adhesion mechanisms;
4. Cure kinetics, viscoelastic modeling, and process-induced stress evolution;
5. Warpage evolution and control in large-size FCBGA substrates;
6. Structural design optimization: symmetry, copper coverage, multilayer layout;
7. Reliability assessment under thermal cycling, mechanical stress, and environmental aging;
8. Data-driven and AI-assisted substrate design and warpage prediction;
9. Case studies bridging fundamental science and practical engineering applications;

Submissions are expected to clearly demonstrate relevance to high-performance packaging substrates; studies on materials or processes unrelated to substrates (e.g., general PCB, standalone Chiplet without substrate context) are outside the scope of this Special Issue.

Dr. Shanjun Ding
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Chips is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• advanced packaging substrates
• materials design
• process integration
• warpage control
• reliability