A Polymer-Free Technique For Assembling Van Der Waals Heterostructures Using Flexible Si Nitride Membranes


A technical paper titled “Clean assembly of van der Waals heterostructures using silicon nitride membranes” was published by researchers at University of Manchester, Imperial College London, National Institute for Materials Science (Japan), and University of Lancaster. Abstract Van der Waals heterostructures are fabricated by layer-by-layer assembly of individual two-dimensional mater... » read more

Verifying Low-Temperature Soldering Compliance For CO2 Savings And Enhanced Product Performance


In a conventional lead-free soldering process reflow ovens operate continuously at about 260°C. An effective alternative capable of operating at a lower temperature could significantly reduce the running costs and CO2 emissions associated with electronic manufacturing. There are also advantages to be gained from the reduction in the thermal stresses imposed on circuit boards and components by ... » read more

Heterogeneous Integration Device Assembly: Key To Enabling Additional Innovations


Heterogeneous integration (HI) improves device functionality by expanding the types of parts and physical configurations combined with silicon chips. Different parts add new functions – with minimal additional volume – thus increasing overall functionality per unit volume. By comparison, classic methods employed to build electronic products, e.g., circuit boards or metal boxes, increase pro... » read more

The Race To Zero Defects In Auto ICs


Assembly houses are fine-tuning their methodologies and processes for automotive ICs, optimizing everything from inspection and metrology to data management in order to prevent escapes and reduce the number of costly returns. Today, assembly defects account for between 12% and 15% of semiconductor customer returns in the automotive chip market. As component counts in vehicles climb from the ... » read more

Where And When End-to-End Analytics Works


With data exploding across all manufacturing steps, the promise of leveraging it from fab to field is beginning to pay off. Engineers are beginning to connect device data across manufacturing and test steps, making it possible to more easily achieve yield and quality goals at lower cost. The key is knowing which process knob will increase yield, which failures can be detected earlier, and wh... » read more

Enablers And Barriers For Connecting Diverse Data


More data is being collected at every step of the manufacturing process, raising the possibility of combining data in new ways to solve engineering problems. But this is far from simple, and combining results is not always possible. The semiconductor industry’s thirst for data has created oceans of it from the manufacturing process. In addition, semiconductor designs large and small now ha... » read more

Challenges With Chiplets And Packaging


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss IC packaging technology trends, chiplets, shortages and other topics with William Chen, a fellow at ASE; Michael Kelly, vice president of advanced packaging development and integration at Amkor; Richard Otte, president and CEO of Promex, the parent company of QP Technologies; Michael Liu, senior director of global technical marketing at JCET; and Th... » read more

Why Wafer Bumps Are Suddenly So Important


Wafer bumps need to be uniform in height to facilitate subsequent manufacturing steps, but a push for 100% inspection in packaging in mission-critical markets is putting a strain on existing measurement technologies. Bump co-planarity is essentially a measure of flatness. Specifically, it measures the variation in bump height, which may have a target, for example, of about 100 microns. As a ... » read more

The Need For Open Molded Plastic Packages


When you need to meet a project or customer deadline, can you count on your outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) provider to get you the parts when you need them? If the answer is “no” or “it depends,” you’ll understand the value of having open molded plastic packages – plastic packages with open cavities – readily available for quick-turn assembly. OSATs are v... » read more

Automotive Chip Shortages: An Assembly Perspective


Since March 2020, the pandemic has brought on scarcity in odd goods like toilet paper, baking flour and exercise equipment. The latest casualty is the auto industry as car production across the world has been hobbled by chip shortages. While much has been written about the role of semiconductor suppliers, foundries, wafer fab equipment, fires, and snowstorms in the chip shortages, we should als... » read more

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