> Youssef Benmokhtar, Marketing & Business Development Director

Youssef Benmokhtar is Marketing & Business Development Director at Nemotek. His responsibilities include promoting Nemotek’s manufacturing services of wafer-level packaging and optics worldwide and building up the support structure for its customers.

Youssef holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech. He has previously worked 13 years at STMicroelectronics where he has held several operational and business roles in the USA and France. He was the 8-bit Microcontroller Business Unit Director prior to joining Nemotek in February this year.

Could you introduce us about the historical / industrial background for the creation of Nemotek?

Nemotek was created in November 2007 as a subsidiary of CDG (a Moroccan company with more than 1.2B$ of assets).

The objective of Nemotek is to offer world-class manufacturing services for wafer-level packaging (WLP) and wafer-level Optics (WLO). We are the first licensee of the full portfolio (SHELLCASE® and OptiML™) from Tessera Technologies which allows us to be an ideal supplier and partner for wafer-level camera manufacturing. We’re located at Rabat Technopolis, a technological campus dedicated to high technologies, namely, biotech, renewable energies and nanotechnologies.

This technology campus will include industries, development centers (including a development center around advanced packaging), a university campus, and many administrative services such as customs, banking and IP protection offices. This environment will provide Nemotek all it needs to be successful on its worldwide market.

 

Nemotek was the first company to adopt all Tessera’s Wafer level packaging technologies IP portfolio. Can tell us more about the choice of Tessera as technology partner?

We’ve spent many months evaluating different technologies with the help of technology consultants. Tessera was chosen as the company having the most attractive product portfolio as well as the most cost-effective process technologies. Indeed, Tessera has a proven WLP technology with tens of thousands of wafers shipped every month worldwide.

Moreover, they have a very attractive WLO technology which can leverage the equipment set used for WLP. We believe that this is the only technology to date which can meet the cost targets of our targeted markets. Finally, I must add that we had an excellent initial contact with Tessera which led immediately to a sound relationship based on mutual respect and trust. This is priceless.

 

What are the next plans for Nemotek? When will the platforms be ready for open services? What are the targeted volumes for each line?

Nemotek is the only company in the world to date to offer a one-stop-shop approach for wafer-level cameras (WLC).

Our customers will have the possibility to choose between WLP, WLO or both through our WLC offer depending on their needs. We offer the possibility to simplify their supply-chain by focusing on a reliable supplier able to provide them with the latest waferlevel technologies. This offer should be particularly attractive to sensor makers and module makers. Our WLP services include the latest MVP technology from Tessera, a very cost-effective Through-Silicon-Via (TSV) solutions. It is particularly well-suited for image sensors (regardless of resolution) and to MEMS/MOEMS. It also allows for future die stacking. We will be ready for prototyping in January ’09 and for production in April ’09. Our current approved investment plan will allow having an installed capacity of 144 000 wafers per year by 2012.

Our initial WLO capabilities are VGA up to 2MP. For these resolutions, we believe to have a very cost effective solution. Higher resolutions will come later when we’ll be able to reach the cost targets demanded by our customers. We will start offering prototyping capabilities by February/March ’09 and we’ll be production ready by May/June ’09. Finally, we plan to produce up to 85 Millions lenses per year when considering a singlet VGA design.

 

Could you share with us your vision about the impact of wafer scale technologies (WLP, WLOptics) on the CMOS image sensor market? Which industries and resolutions are targeted. What is the Cost target for such camera modules in the long run?

We truly believe that wafer scale technologies are the technologies of the near-future. Size reduction and most importantly, cost reduction can only be achieved through radical innovation.

WLP/WLO are the ‘disruptive’ technologies of the CMOS sensor market when compared to more traditional technologies. We envision a strong pervasion of wafer-scale technologies in the market for the next 5 years, starting with the mobile phone industry. We believe that WLC is the only way to achieve the cost target of around $1 per Megapixel.

However, the mobile phone market is not the only segment pushing for this kind of technology services. We are in contact with customers in many other markets such automotive, light sensors, medical, MEMS and other consumer applications. They are all looking for smaller, thinner and cheaper packages and optics. Our recent discussions with customers confirm that we have a compelling offer, in terms of technology portfolio and choice.