--- title: "LG's laser draws chip-package connections without making a mask" locale: "en" url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/lg-ldi-maskless-packaging-en" markdown_url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/lg-ldi-maskless-packaging-en.md" category: "tech" tags: ["semiconductors", "packaging", "lithography", "laser", "manufacturing"] published_at: "2026-08-23T14:18:00.000Z" author: "Léa Perrin" translation: "https://irz.fr/fr/articles/lg-ldi-maskless-packaging-fr.md" --- # LG's laser draws chip-package connections without making a mask LG PRI is offering a Laser Direct Imaging tool that exposes package patterns directly on photosensitive substrates. The gain is flexibility; its announced top resolution is still far from transistor lithography. A photomask is a part made in order to make other parts. LG PRI wants to remove one step from that chain: its **Laser Direct Imaging** machine projects a digital pattern directly onto a photosensitive substrate, without a photomask.[1](https://lg-pri.com/en/page/solution/se/1?tab=4#tab) The machine belongs to packaging, where it forms fine metal connections on a substrate that links chips together, rather than to the transistor-printing stage of a processor.[1](https://lg-pri.com/en/page/solution/se/1?tab=4#tab)[3](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/lg-enters-chip-packaging-arena-with-laser-direct-imaging-machine-as-tsmcs-cowos-remains-constrained-maskless-machine-is-designed-to-pattern-fine-interconnects-trading-resolution-for-higher-throughput) That may sound less dramatic than replacing a cleanroom with a laser, yet it removes a very practical nuisance: a new pattern no longer has to begin with making a new mask. ## Drawing without a stencil Conventional lithography encodes the pattern in a mask or reticle, then an optical system projects it onto a photosensitive surface; after development, the resist becomes a template for later operations.[4](https://www.asml.com/en/technology/lithography-principles) That intermediate part is precise and specific to one geometry. LDI replaces that stencil with a digitally controlled pattern generator. LG PRI calls the result a technology for “circuit patterning without the need for photo masks”, and lists pattern generation, projection optics, precision alignment and stage control among the system's ingredients.[1](https://lg-pri.com/en/page/solution/se/1?tab=4#tab) The laser exposes the required areas; no copper comes out of it. Later resist, development and metallization steps still form the connections.[3](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/lg-enters-chip-packaging-arena-with-laser-direct-imaging-machine-as-tsmcs-cowos-remains-constrained-maskless-machine-is-designed-to-pattern-fine-interconnects-trading-resolution-for-higher-throughput) That distinction matters when the substrate is not perfectly obedient. LG PRI advertises pattern generation and calibration during processing, with monitoring and alignment functions.[1](https://lg-pri.com/en/page/solution/se/1?tab=4#tab) Tom's Hardware connects this capability to changes in the size, expansion and warping of organic substrates: the pattern can be adjusted to the actual support instead of assuming it behaves exactly like the nominal design.[3](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/lg-enters-chip-packaging-arena-with-laser-direct-imaging-machine-as-tsmcs-cowos-remains-constrained-maskless-machine-is-designed-to-pattern-fine-interconnects-trading-resolution-for-higher-throughput) ## The number that keeps it grounded LG PRI advertises **1.5-micrometre line-and-space**, meaning the width of a line and the gap next to it.[1](https://lg-pri.com/en/page/solution/se/1?tab=4#tab) ETNews also reports 3- and 5-micrometre versions for different customer needs.[2](https://www.etnews.com/20260818000222) At printed-circuit-board scale, that is fine work. The figure says nothing about a “1.5 nm process” for making processors: transistor lithography operates at a different scale, with different systems, materials and constraints. LG's LDI is presented for advanced packages, displays, MEMS and some PCB work, rather than as a replacement for the DUV or EUV scanners that project wafer patterns.[1](https://lg-pri.com/en/page/solution/se/1?tab=4#tab)[4](https://www.asml.com/en/technology/lithography-principles) The limitation makes the trade-off visible: LDI gives up some ultimate resolution in exchange for flexibility and large-area processing. Tom's Hardware reports substrate handling up to 600 × 600 mm and describes the machine as a tool for package interconnects, not a universal lithography system.[3](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/lg-enters-chip-packaging-arena-with-laser-direct-imaging-machine-as-tsmcs-cowos-remains-constrained-maskless-machine-is-designed-to-pattern-fine-interconnects-trading-resolution-for-higher-throughput) The point is easy to miss if packaging is treated as a footnote. A package now has to connect several dies, memory and logic, with electrical paths dense enough for the whole system to work; redistribution layers and interposers have become manufacturing objects in their own right. ## Why packaging matters Architectures such as CoWoS have made that stage unusually visible because demand for AI accelerators has put packaging capacity under pressure. It would be too strong to conclude that LG's machine will solve that bottleneck. ETNews describes a first order for an OSAT line, while Tom's Hardware stresses that production performance and adoption by additional customers remain to be demonstrated.[2](https://www.etnews.com/20260818000222)[3](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/lg-enters-chip-packaging-arena-with-laser-direct-imaging-machine-as-tsmcs-cowos-remains-constrained-maskless-machine-is-designed-to-pattern-fine-interconnects-trading-resolution-for-higher-throughput) The industrial logic is nevertheless clear. A physical mask makes sense when the same pattern will be repeated for a long time and in high volume. When substrates change, geometries evolve or a customer requests a variant, mask preparation adds cost and delay. Digital control removes that particular preparation step, while leaving the harder questions of throughput, alignment and yield on the table. ## A first order, not proof yet The most important detail in the announcement may be the customer. LG PRI had already supplied LDI equipment for display manufacturing and says it extended that experience into semiconductor packaging.[1](https://lg-pri.com/en/page/solution/se/1?tab=4#tab)[2](https://www.etnews.com/20260818000222) The announced order from an OSAT moves the technology from a demonstration or research installation toward a line intended to produce. That does not establish a yield, a throughput or long-term reliability. The published sources do not give the machine's full production rate, the defect rate achieved on this line, or the production volume covered by the order. Those are the figures needed to compare LDI's flexibility honestly with the cost of a mask and the speed of conventional exposure. LG's move is therefore less “the laser replaces lithography” than this: **for some package connections, a digital file may be more useful than the mask it replaces**. The manufacturing promise still needs a broader result behind it. The next test is the least glamorous one: producing many identical substrates with few defects, for a long time. ## References 1. [LG PRI, LDI(Laser Direct Imaging) Lithography Technology](https://lg-pri.com/en/page/solution/se/1?tab=4#tab) 2. [ETNews, LG전자, OSAT 기업서 LDI 장비 첫 수주…반도체 사업 '가속도', 18 August 2026](https://www.etnews.com/20260818000222) 3. [Tom's Hardware, LG enters chip packaging arena with Laser Direct Imaging machine, 21 August 2026](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/lg-enters-chip-packaging-arena-with-laser-direct-imaging-machine-as-tsmcs-cowos-remains-constrained-maskless-machine-is-designed-to-pattern-fine-interconnects-trading-resolution-for-higher-throughput) 4. [ASML, Lithography principles](https://www.asml.com/en/technology/lithography-principles)