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The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Market research Earlier this year, the IC and equipment markets were projected to be flat. More recently, though, analysts have raised their forecast, including Pacific Crest Securities. “We are raising our 2017 capex outlook meaningfully, with the upside coming predominantly from Samsung,” said Weston Twigg, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, in a report. "We're raising our 2017 se... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: June 6


Molecular black holes A group of researchers have used an ultra-bright pulse of X-ray light to hit a tiny atom in a molecule, causing the structure to explode and create a “molecular black hole.” The molecular black hole is different than a black hole in space, however. A black hole is a region in space, which has a gravitational field so strong that no matter or light can escape it. ... » read more

What’s Next In Scaling, Stacking


An Steegen, executive vice president of semiconductor technology and systems at [getentity id="22217" e_name="Imec"], sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss IC scaling, chip stacking, packaging and other topics. Imec is an R&D organization in Belgium. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Chipmakers are shipping 16nm/14nm processes with 10nm and 7nm technologies... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Market research IC Insights has released its capital spending forecast by company. In total, there are 15 companies that are forecast to have semiconductor capital expenditures of $1.0 billion or more in 2017, up from 11 in 2016, according to IC Insights. Four companies—Intel, Samsung, GlobalFoundries, and SK Hynix—are expected to represent the bulk of the increase in spending, accord... » read more

Sourcing Used Equipment


Emerald Greig, executive vice president for the Americas & Europe at SurplusGlobal, sat down to discuss fabs and the used/refurbished equipment market with Semiconductor Engineering. SurplusGlobal is one of the world’s largest suppliers of secondary fab equipment. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What is the status of the 200mm new or used equipment market today? ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 30


Looking for heavy photons The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and others have embarked on a mission to find hypothetical particles called heavy photons. In 2015, researchers from the so-called Heavy Photon Search (HPS) group started the experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Researchers installed a particle detector half a millim... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers Samsung has formed a new foundry division and rolled out a range of new processes. Specifically, Samsung plans to develop 8nm, 7nm, 6nm, 5nm and 4nm. It also introduced an 18nm FD-SOI technology. GlobalFoundries has provided more details about its 300mm fab plans in China. The company and the Chengdu municipality have announced an investment to develop an ecosystem for its 22nm ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 23


Pushing optical metrology The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed a new way to determine crystal types using optical metrology techniques. Using an optical-based technique called absorption spectroscopy, researchers have detected tiny nanocrystals down to about 2nm resolutions. Absorption spectroscopy measures the absorption of radiation. It is measured as a function o... » read more

The Race To 10/7nm


Amid the ongoing ramp of 16/14nm processes in the market, the industry is now gearing up for the next nodes. In fact, GlobalFoundries, Intel, Samsung and TSMC are racing each other to ship 10nm and/or 7nm technologies. The current iterations of 10nm and 7nm technologies are scaled versions of today’s 16nm/14nm finFETs with traditional copper interconnects, high-k/metal-gate and low-k diele... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Market research Intel retained its No. 1 position as the largest semiconductor manufacturer and grew its semiconductor revenue 4.6% in 2016, according to Gartner. Samsung Electronics continued to maintain the No. 2 spot with 11.7% market share. The largest mover in the top 25 was Broadcom, which moved up 12 places in the market share ranking, according to the firm. Worldwide silicon wafer a... » read more

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