Startup Funding: April 2023


Packaging was a hot spot in April, with one of the largest rounds going to a middle-end-of-line advanced packaging company. A second packaging company also drew significant funding for its focus on wafer-level packaging for CMOS image sensors. Two packaging substrate manufacturers also saw investment. Two photoresist makers also drew sizeable rounds. Both they and the packaging companies are... » read more

Startup Funding: February 2023


The cost of borrowing is going up, but investors continued to pour money into the chip industry in February. Collectively, 132 companies raised more than $4.5 billion last month. One of the big beneficiaries was quantum computing, with nine companies drawing a total of more than $500 million. The bulk of that went to a quantum software and services company spun out of Alphabet, but plenty wa... » read more

Rogue Valley Microdevices: MEMS Foundry


Venturing into the MEMS manufacturing market is a shaky proposition. The investment is high, the returns are questionable, and the competition can be fierce. Rogue Valley Microdevices is one of a handful of pure-play MEMS foundries in the United States, a difficult market divided into two distinct parts. One on side are a handful of higher-margin new technologies, such as piezoelectric micro... » read more

A New Approach to Metrology


The startup Active Layer Parametrics Inc.'s ALPro 50 metrology tool offers “depth profiling of electrical properties at atomic-level resolution” —and automated processing with direct data transfer. The continuing miniaturization of microchips and nanochips has propelled the use of atomic-layer deposition and atomic-layer etch processes in semiconductor manufacturing. With miniaturization... » read more

AI Accelerator Gyrfalcon Soars Post Stealth


Milpitas, Calif.-based startup Gyrfalcon Technology Inc. (GTI), which emerged from semi-stealth mode in September, recently announced the datacenter-focused second generation of its neural-network accelerator, which was first aimed at the endpoint. GTI is not alone: The endpoint market is growing. By 2022, 25% of endpoint devices will execute AI algorithms (inference for neural network appli... » read more

Startup Puts Quantum Security on USB, Dongles


U.K. startup Quantum Base, Ltd. is one of a small number of companies betting on the benefits of quantum computing even without quantum computers. The six-and-a-half-year-old company came together largely because its technical guru was frustrated at how long it was taking to develop genuine quantum computers and wanted to find a practical, immediate use for the things he'd learned in his own... » read more

Baum: Finding SoC Power Flaws


A South Korean startup founded by a Samsung engineer-turned-researcher has created a tool that finds power design flaws early in the SoC design process. The startup, Baum, Inc., launched the second version of its power-modeling solution in June at DAC. The product is a power design-verification tool that uses high-level models to create analyses designed to spot design flaws that could creat... » read more

Fractilia: Pattern Roughness Metrology


A new startup has emerged and unveiled a technology that addresses one of the bigger but less understood problems in advanced lithography--pattern roughness. The startup, called Fractilia, is a software-based metrology tool that analyzes the CD-SEM images of pattern roughness on a wafer. Fractilia, a self-funded startup, is led by Chris Mack and Ed Charrier. Mack, known as the gentleman sc... » read more

zeroK NanoTech: FIB Circuit Edit


Focused ion beam (FIB) circuit editing is an enabling technology that has been around for some time. Using a standard FIB tool, a chipmaker can basically edit portions of a circuit before it goes into production. It allows chipmakers to debug chips, cut traces, add metal connections and perform other functions. One startup, zeroK NanoTech, is putting a new and innovative twist on FIB circui... » read more

Maglen: Multi-Beam E-Beam Inspection


Wafer inspection, the science of finding defects on a wafer, is becoming more challenging and costly at each node. In fact, the ability to detect sub-30nm defects is challenging with today’s inspection tools, which are primarily based on two separate technologies—optical and e-beam. In the inspection flow, chipmakers first use e-beam inspection, mainly for engineering analysis. E-beam is... » read more

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