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DRD 7.6b periodical meeting
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Europe/Zurich
News from the TC Meeting – May 2026
The meeting started with an update regarding the recent Technical Coordination (TC) meeting held in May 2026. It was officially communicated that the extension of the ECFA-DRD projects has been approved. In particular, DRD7 has received an extension from mid-2027 until mid-2029.
It was clarified that a new proposal will need to be submitted for the continuation period. This opens several opportunities for the collaboration, including the possible resubmission of selected parts of the current project where necessary, as well as the development of completely new activities naturally evolving from the present work. Several possible future research directions were discussed during the meeting, including maintaining an active consortium for “on-demand” chiplet production flows, advanced co-packaging of electronics and photonics with novel optical packaging solutions, novel detector technologies for large-area wafer-level integration based on flat or bent wafers, technologies for wafer bending, and future 3D integration approaches focused on single-die MPW production.
The DRDC requested that the new proposal be submitted by March 2027. It was also emphasized that the proposal must include a comprehensive Status Report summarizing the current DRD7 activities and the progress achieved so far. During the discussion, it was suggested that this report should also include all newly acquired infrastructures, machines, and equipment purchased within the framework of the collaboration, as these investments represent an important outcome of the ongoing activities.
Join DRD-DRD7 Forum at CERN
The meeting then continued with an overview of the coordination activities and upcoming events within the DRD7.6b collaboration. It was highlighted that the collaboration continues to maintain a strong coordination effort through regular technical discussions and dedicated workshops involving both the DRD3 and DRD7 communities. The regular DRD7.6b meetings are currently organized on a monthly basis, typically on the last Friday of each month.
Attention was then given to the preparation of the DRD7.6b Annual Meeting 2026, scheduled for 5–6 October 2026 in Barcelona immediately after TWEPP 2026. The meeting will focus on the current status of the pilot production, developments in 3D integration technologies, wafer-to-wafer bonding activities, and future collaborative initiatives. The Indico page for the event has already been published.
The collaboration also discussed the preparation of a joint DRD3–DRD7 forum to be organized at CERN. This joint initiative will focus on 3D integration technologies, wafer-to-wafer bonding, and heterogeneous detector integration. As a next step, a Doodle poll will be circulated to identify suitable dates for the workshop. A question from Dominik regarding the organization of activities in September was raised during the meeting. Participants were asked to communicate possible constraints or periods of unavailability during September in order to facilitate the scheduling of future activities. Michele will prepare and circulate a Doodle poll to collect this information.
PilotProject production at CNM (MIquel)
The discussion then moved to the technical status of the pilot wafer production. It was reported that the preliminary wafer processing operations at CNM have been successfully completed. In particular, the wafer oxidation and strip processes have been finalized. The wafers are now ready for the next technological step, namely the aluminum deposition and patterning process, which is scheduled for the coming weeks. Following this phase, the standard in-line metrology characterization will take place. According to the current CNM schedule, all wafers from the batch are expected to be ready for shipment to HLL within approximately two weeks. The collaboration acknowledged and thanked Miguel for the successful completion of this important production milestone.
Additional technical updates were also presented by several institutes.
Report @ Dortmund (Michael)
Additional updates were also presented by the Dortmund group. A new AI-oriented ASIC in 28 nm TSMC technology has recently been submitted. The development of this chip will require a dedicated new interposer design. Michele expressed the interest in participating in the next wafer submission cycle; however, it was clarified that such participation will need to be discussed and agreed upon collectively with all partners and, in any case, only after completion of the current ongoing production activities.
Report @ Norway
From Norway, Prof. Vu reported on the ongoing progress in bump deposition technologies using different process approaches. It was agreed that Prof. Vu will provide a more detailed status report on these activities during one of the next meetings.
Report @ KIT
KIT reported on the recent FINEPLACER femto training activities and on the ongoing gold-stud bonding activities following the handover performed by Michele.
NO TSVs activities done so far
Report @ FBK
FBK informed the collaboration that the probes required for the transmission-line testing and characterization implemented within the pilot project have now arrived and are available in Trento.
Final remarks (all)
Finally, it was agreed that the next DRD7.6b meeting will be anticipated to June 23 instead of the usual last Friday of the month due to the upcoming holiday period. The meeting concluded with a general discussion under AOB and with thanks to all participants for their contributions and continued support to the collaboration activities.
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