TSMC Tech Symposium 2026, By The Numbers


TSMC announced three new advanced process technologies at its North America Technology Symposium last week A13, A12 and N2U as part of its latest advanced technology roadmap. Compared to the roadmap presented at last year’s tech symposium, the new roadmap shows the three new process technologies in gold text. Figure 1: TSMC's Advanced Technology Roadmap. Source: TSMC To put these t... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Deals Marvell acquired Polariton Technologies, a Swiss developer of plasmonics-based silicon photonics devices. Onto Innovation is partnering with Rigaku, combining Onto’s analysis software with Rigaku’s CD-SAXS platform for advanced semiconductor process control. Onto also agreed to acquire a 27% stake in Rigaku for about $710M. Tesla plans to use Intel’s 14A process for its T... » read more

System-in-Package Challenges


Systems companies and leading-edge chipmakers are pushing past reticle limits with chiplet-based designs, often breaking compute-intensive functions into different chiplets and coupling those with other chiplets that may have been developed by different teams and at different process nodes. This is harder than it sounds, and results can vary widely even under the best circumstances. Nir Sever, ... » read more

Can Edge AI Keep Up?


Key Takeaways: Model development is outpacing silicon design cycles, so edge AI architectures must prioritize adaptability. The required cadence for model updates is highly application-dependent and is closely tied to product lifetime and operational risk. Adaptability can conflict with power, performance, and area targets, so effective heterogeneous architectures and robust softwa... » read more

Blog Review: Apr. 22


In a podcast, Siemens EDA's Harry Foster and Vladislav Palfy chat about why coverage closure has become one of the biggest bottlenecks in modern verification and how a unified approach that combines planning, automation, and analytics helps teams break through coverage plateaus. Synopsys' Emily Gerken and Marc Swinnen consider the challenges of designing analog and mixed-signal circuits at a... » read more

TSV Complexity Leads To Manufacturing Bottleneck


Key Takeaways: Through-silicon vias are the biggest enabler of 3D chip stacking and chip-to-PCB connections through silicon interposers. The AI boom is causing HBM and advanced assembly shortages, straining the supply chain. Optimization around etch, fill and reveal help reduce TSV cost. Through-silicon vias (TSVs) provide essential interconnects between DRAM dies inside hig... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Apr. 21


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: Technical Paper Research Organizations Neural Computers 🔗 Meta AI, KAUST Characterizing tip-sample interaction dynamics on EUV nanostructures using AFM with a high-aspect ratio tip 🔗 Purdue University, Intel, Bruker  Photonic chip packaging for extreme environments ὑ... » read more

Research Bits: Apr. 21


Compute-in-memory state space models Researchers from the University of Michigan mapped complex state space models directly onto a compute-in-memory architecture in an example of hardware-software co-design for edge AI. "Compute-in-memory systems offer very high energy efficiency and throughput, but they are rigid and not optimal for convolution and transformer networks. In this study, we s... » read more

Why Proof Convergence Matters


Achieving a deterministic "yes or no" answer in semiconductor verification is becoming more challenging as chip complexity increases. There are more cores, more potential interactions, and more reliance on AI to build AI chips. Ashish Darbari, CEO of Axiomise, talks about the impact of functional interactions involving safety and security, and where to look for common patterns to prevent bugs f... » read more

Batteries Charge To The Edge


Long-awaited advances in battery chemistry and materials science are beginning to roll out, opening the door for higher capacity, faster charging, and much lower likelihood of thermal runaway. This is a high-stakes race, fueled by an insatiable demand for power everywhere from handheld devices to data centers. When Finland's Donut Lab claimed earlier this year that it had developed a solid-s... » read more

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