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 - 29 Apr, 2016 - Comments: 0

Chipmakers IC Insights released its foundry rankings in terms of sales in 2015. TSMC was the leader with $26.4 billion in sales last year. Second ranked GlobalFoundries, which took over IBM’s IC business in 2015, made some gains. With IBM’s chip unit, GlobalFoundries’ quarterly sales in 4Q ‘15 were about $1.4 billion, an annual run-rate of $5.6 billion, about 12% greater than the compa... » read more

Next EUV Challenge: Pellicles
By Mark LaPedus - 27 Apr, 2016 - Comments: 1

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is still not ready for high-volume manufacturing, but the technology is at least moving in the right direction. Both the [gettech id="31045" comment="EUV"] light source and resists are making noticeable progress, even though there are still challenges in the arena. And then, there is the EUV mask infrastructure, which also has some gaps. “When EUV i... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 26
By Mark LaPedus - 26 Apr, 2016 - Comments: 0

Multi-beam inspection For some time, Singaporean startup Maglen has been developing a multi-beam e-beam inspection tool technology. Now, Maglen has reached two milestones. First, it has devised a full column test stand. The test stand includes a mechanical column and software. The second milestone is also significant. “We also dropped our beam and obtained our very first images,” sai... » read more

10nm Versus 7nm
By Mark LaPedus - 25 Apr, 2016 - Comments: 20

The silicon foundry business is heating up, as vendors continue to ramp their 16nm/14nm finFET processes. At the same time, they are racing each other to ship the next technologies on the roadmap—10nm and 7nm. But the landscape is complicated, with each vendor taking a different strategy. [getentity id="22865" e_name="Samsung"], for one, plans to ship its 10nm [getkc id="185" kc_name="fi... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 22 Apr, 2016 - Comments: 0

Chipmakers As reported, Samsung is expanding its efforts in the foundry business, a move that will put the company on a collision course with TSMC and others. Samsung's foundry unit is expanding is logic portfolio and moving into the specialty foundry front. It will also make its advanced packaging technology available, such as 2.5D interposers, to customers. In a blog, Samsung said it plans t... » read more

7nm Fab Challenges
By Mark LaPedus - 21 Apr, 2016 - Comments: 3

Leading-edge foundry vendors have made the challenging transition from traditional planar processes into the finFET transistor era. The first [getkc id="185" kc_name="finFETs"] were based on the 22nm node, and now the industry is ramping up 16nm/14nm technologies. Going forward, the question is how far the finFET can be scaled. In fact, 10nm finFETs from Samsung are expected to ramp by ye... » read more

Insider’s Guide To Fab Technology
By Mark LaPedus - 21 Apr, 2016 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss fab technology with Matt Paggi, vice president of advanced technology development at GlobalFoundries. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What’s driving demand for semiconductors today? Paggi: You are aware of what the worldwide semiconductor revenue growth is this year. There are peaks and valleys in the worldwide semiconduc... » read more

Inside Process Technology
By Mark LaPedus - 21 Apr, 2016 - Comments: 1

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the foundry business, memory, process technology, lithography and other topics with David Fried, chief technology officer at [getentity id="22210" e_name="Coventor"], a supplier of predictive modeling tools. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Chipmakers are ramping up 16nm/14nm finFETs today, with 10nm and 7nm finFETs just around... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 19
By Mark LaPedus - 19 Apr, 2016 - Comments: 0

Hot videos The University of Minnesota has recorded videos that show how heat travels through materials, a move that could give researchers insight into the behavior of atoms and other structures. It could also pave the way towards the development of more efficient materials for use in electronics and other applications. In the lab, researchers used FEI’s transmission electron microsc... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 15 Apr, 2016 - Comments: 0

Chipmakers TSMC remained the world’s largest foundry vendor with a 54.3% share in 2015, according to the rankings from Gartner. GlobalFoundries moved into the No. 2 position with 9.6% of the market. The No. 3 position went to UMC with $4.5 billion in revenue, representing 9.3% of the market, according to the firm, which said Samsung remains No. 4. SMIC, which is No. 5, is gaining ground. ... » read more

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