Mark LaPedus

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Mark LaPedus is Executive Editor for manufacturing at Semiconductor Engineering.

Author's Latest Posts

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 08 Aug, 2014 - Comments: 0

Many are suffering from “fragiphoniphobia” without even realizing it, according to Kyocera. This is the fear of fragile phones and worries about the drops and spills ruining our smartphones and disrupting our lives. A recent survey from comScore revealed that 73% of consumers surveyed rated drop protection or scratch-proof/shatter-proof screens as the most desirable durability feature, whil... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: August 5
By Mark LaPedus - 05 Aug, 2014 - Comments: 0

Double Big Mac chips Using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), Cornell has devised a method of growing an emerging class of oxide films called Ruddlesden-Poppers. These oxides are layered structures, which consist of 2D-based perovskite slabs interleaved with cations. In the future, these structures could be used in various applications, such as superconductivity, magnetoresistance and ferromagne... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 01 Aug, 2014 - Comments: 0

Fujitsu Semiconductor and Panasonic’s chip unit announced that the parties have signed a definitive agreement to merge and establish a new fabless IC company. Panasonic isn’t exactly fabless--yet. Recently, Panasonic took its fabs and formed a fab venture with TowerJazz. Meanwhile, as part of the move, Fujitsu and Fujitsu Semiconductor have decided to expand the scope of its foundry op... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: July 29
By Mark LaPedus - 29 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 2

Measuring hydrogen fuel for cars The use of fuel cells to power cars and buses is still in its infancy. Fuel cell vehicles are electric-based systems powered by hydrogen. A fuel cell uses a certain type of proton exchange membrane (PEM). The PEM fuel cells are stacked together to form a fuel cell stack. All told, fuel cell systems are about 60% efficient, or roughly two to three times more ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 25 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 0

Here’s a sad commentary on the state of Japan’s electronics industry: Some Japanese electronics giants are converting unused factories and fabs into agricultural growing facilities, according to The Wall Street Journal. Last month, for example, Fujitsu began selling lettuce from the Aizu-Wakamatsu plant. It's officially over. IBM's talks to sell its chip unit to GlobalFoundries have offi... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: July 22
By Mark LaPedus - 22 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 0

Skateboarding on 2D materials Two-dimensional materials are gaining steam in the R&D labs. The 2D materials include graphene, boron nitride (BN) and the transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). These materials are attractive candidates for futuristic field-effect transistors (FETs). But researchers must gain more insight into these materials in order to understand their properties. For ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 18 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 0

IBM’s move to sell its chip business to GlobalFoundries may have stalled or is dead, according to the Albany Times Union and other news outlets. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state will partner with over 100 private companies, led by GE, to launch the New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium. GE will be a lead partner in a fab, housed at the CNSE Nano Tech co... » read more

1-on-1 With Intel’s Foundry Chief
By Mark LaPedus - 17 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 1

By Mark LaPedus & Ed Sperling Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss foundry trends, IC scaling, chip-packaging and other topics with Sunit Rikhi, vice president of the Technology and Manufacturing Group at Intel and general manager of Intel’s Custom Foundry unit. SE: Where is Intel at in the foundry business today? Rikhi: We started with a very narrow set of customers. Now, we... » read more

Has 3D NAND Fallen Flat?
By Mark LaPedus - 17 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 0

Today’s planar NAND technology will hit the wall at 10nm, prompting the need for the next big thing in flash memory—3D NAND. In fact, 3D NAND may extend NAND flash memory for the next several years and enable new applications. And it will also drive a new wave of fabs and tool orders. But the transition won’t be as smooth as previous rollouts. 3D NAND is harder to manufacture than pr... » read more

How To Lower LED Costs
By Mark LaPedus - 17 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 2

The LED market remains hot, particularly in the solid-state lighting segment. In fact, solid-state lighting continues to expand amid a precipitous drop in LED prices. And LEDs are expanding into new fronts, such as automotive and intelligent lighting. The LED boom hasn’t been fun for all parties, however. Amid pressure to reduce their tool costs, LED equipment makers are still in the mids... » read more

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