Author's Latest Posts


Mask/Lithography Issues For Mature Nodes


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss lithography and photomask issues with Bryan Kasprowicz, director of technology and strategy and a distinguished member of the technical staff at Photronics; Harry Levinson, principal at HJL Lithography; Noriaki Nakayamada, senior technologist at NuFlare; and Aki Fujimura, chief executive of D2S. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 20


Thermometers for 3D measurements The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing a nano-thermometer technology that could one day take 3D temperature measurements at the microscopic scale. The project, called Thermal Magnetic Imaging and Control (Thermal MagIC), hopes to develop tiny thermometers based on magnetic nanoparticles. These tiny thermometers could be injec... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs Intel is exiting the NAND flash market. SK Hynix and Intel announced that they have signed an agreement on Oct. 20, under which SK Hynix would acquire Intel’s NAND memory and storage business for $9 billion.The transaction includes the NAND SSD business, the NAND component and wafer business, and the Dalian NAND memory manufacturing facility in China. Intel will retain it... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 12


MoSi2 pellicles for EUV Hanyang University has presented a paper that describes a novel molybdenum disilicide (MoSi2) pellicle membrane for use in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. With a 28nm thickness, a MoSi2 membrane has demonstrated a 89.33% transmittance for EUV lithography. The pellicle technology is still in R&D. MoSi2, which is a silicide of molybdenum, is a refractory cer... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs AMD is in talks to acquire Xilinx in a deal that could be worth more than $30 billion, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. If the deal transpires, AMD will enter the FPGA business, putting it further in competition with Intel. No deal has been struck, though. --------------------------------------------- Multiple sources believe that China’s Huawei i... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 6


High-NA EUV mask materials A team of researchers have presented a new paper on the tradeoffs of photomask absorber materials for high-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. In the paper, researchers concluded that the industry will likely require an alternative mask absorber stack for high-numerical aperture (high-NA) EUV lithography. Fraunhofer, Imec, ASML and Zeiss contributed to the... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs NXP has announced the grand opening of its 150mm (6-inch) RF gallium nitride (GaN) fab in Chandler, Ariz. This is said to be the most advanced fab dedicated to 5G RF power amplifiers in the United States. NXP’s new Chandler-based GaN fab is qualified now, with initial products ramping in the market and expected to reach full capacity by the end of 2020. GaN, a III-V techn... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 29


Exploring chemical reactions using EUV The University of Tokyo has established a facility to study fast chemical reactions using a coherent extreme ultraviolet light source. The new coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) source facility enables researchers to explore time-dependent phenomena, such as ultrafast chemical reactions of biological or physical samples. Located in an underground fa... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Top stories Here's the latest from Reuters: ''The United States has imposed restrictions on exports to China’s biggest chip maker SMIC after concluding there is an 'unacceptable risk' equipment supplied to it could be used for military purposes." What does this all mean? “The press has reported that on Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce placed restrictions on China's largest semicondu... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 22


Hairy nanoparticles The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is developing a new type of material called preceramic polymer-grafted nanoparticles or “hairy nanoparticles” (HNP). HNPs can be used to manufacture a new class of aircraft parts made of ceramic composite materials. An HNP is a hybrid material. It is based on a polymer shell, which is bound to a nanoparticle core, according to t... » read more

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