). The term `silicon efficiency' is defined as the ratio of total silicon footprint area to substrate area. Hence, in any 2D technology, the silicon efficiency can never exceed 100% - however, in 3D
technology this barrier is broken due to many overlapping footprints within one stack. In the case of MCMs versus single packages, the footprint is reduced by 20-90% because of the use of bare dice (ie. unpackaged dice). A comparison between 3D technology and other packaging technologies in terms of silicon efficiency is shown in Figure , where 3D technology exceeds 100%.
Figure: A graphical illustration of the silicon efficiency between MCMs and 3D technology.
Figure: Silicon efficiency comparison between 3D packaging technology and other conventional packaging technologies (Adapted from [12]).