Innovative Materials for Next-Gen Package Substrates and Co-Packaged Optics (CPO)

  Mr. Habib Hichri

  EVP, Senior Fellow, Global Applications and Business Development, Ajinomoto Fine Techno Corporation, USA

Abstract: 

Advanced semiconductor packages require insulating and optical-interconnect materials that deliver high reliability, low transmission loss, and compatibility with dense multilayer fabrication. Ajinomoto Build-up FilmTM (ABFTM) is widely used for package substrates because of its insulation reliability, thickness uniformity, and suitability for semi-additive processes.
This presentation introduces ABFT and discusses polymer optical waveguides and adhesive materials for co-packaged optics (CPO), highlighting their potential to support lower power consumption, higher bandwidth density, thermal stability, robust bonding, and standard substrate-process compatibility.

Speaker's Biography:

Habib Hichri is Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow for Global Applications and Business Development at Ajinomoto Fine-Techno USA. Previously, he was Director of Applications Engineering at SUSS MicroTec Photonics Systems USA, providing patterning solutions for advanced semiconductor packaging. He spent 12 years at IBM’s Semiconductor R&D Center in East Fishkill, NY, as lead process integration engineer and later in management for front-end microprocessor fabrication. Habib holds over 40 U.S. patents, has authored 75+ publications, and contributed a book chapter to Advances in Embedded and Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging Technologies (Wiley-IEEE). He earned his Master’s and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Claude Bernard University, France, and an MBA from SUNY Buffalo. Chair of IEEE/EPS Orange County, he serves on ECTC and IMAPS committees, is an IMAPS Fellow, and sits on the IMAPS Executive Council. Since 2024, he has been a board member of iNEMI and, since 2025, of the International Semiconductor Industry Group (ISIG).