Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Market research In the second quarter of 2019, TrendForce said that the top-5 foundry rankings remained identical with that of last year. But sixth to tenth place showed some changes. Who is up or down in what is a tough business climate? Global fab equipment spending will rebound in 2020, growing 20% to $58.4 billion after dropping 19% to $48.4 billion in 2019, according to SEMI. However, ... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Products/Services Mentor, a Siemens Business, announced the release of the final phase of the Valor software New Product Introduction design-for-manufacturing technology, automating printed circuit board design reviews. The company has integrated DFM technology into the Xpedition software layout application. Arteris IP reports that Toshiba has taped out its next-generation advanced driv... » read more

The Week in Review: IoT


Finance Farmobile has raised $18.1 million in a Series B round of funding, led by Anterra Capital and AmTrust Agricultural Insurance Services, bringing its total funding to more than $28 million. Existing investors also took part in the new round. The agricultural Internet of Things startup will use the money to expand its operations around the world. Farmobile provides agronomic and machine d... » read more

Ray Zinn Reflects On 37 Years As CEO Of Micrel


Believed to be the longest serving CEO of any company to have existed in Silicon Valley, Ray Zinn does more in retirement than many people would accomplish as full time employees. While his name may not be at the top of most influential people in the valley, the industry may not be the same today had it not been for his contributions. Semiconductor Engineering spoke with him about his past, the... » read more

Predictive Fab Management


Managing variation requires a different approach in fab management, moving from reactive to predictive methodologies. This is easier said than done, however. Predictive fab management requires a much more detailed understanding of everything happening in the fab, including process variation, equipment variation, mix variation—all of which must be managed with dispatch strategies to produc... » read more