Directed Self-Assembly Finds Its Footing

By Gregory Haley - 17 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

Ten years ago, when the industry was struggling to deliver EUV lithography, directed self-assembly (DSA) roared to the forefront of research and development for virtually every manufacturer determined to extend the limits of 193i. It was the hot topic at of the 2012 SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference, with one attendee from Applied Materials comparing its potential to disrupt the industry to ... » read more

Securing Chip Manufacturing Against Growing Cyber Threats

By Anne Meixner - 17 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor manufacturers are wrestling with how to secure a highly specialized and diverse global supply chain, particularly as the value of their IP and their dependence upon software increases — along with the sophistication and resources of the attackers. Where methodologies and standards do exist for security, they often are confusing, cumbersome, and incomplete. There are plenty of... » read more

Is Maskless Lithography Coming Into Its Own?

By Katherine Derbyshire - 17 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

Lithographers have always faced tradeoffs between speed and flexibility. Steppers are very good at printing hundreds or thousands of identical features onto hundreds or thousands of wafers. They are not especially good at handling surfaces with significant topography, though. Nor is customization feasible. Every exposure uses the same reticle. Direct write e-beam lithography has long been us... » read more

3D In-Memory Compute Making Progress

By Katherine Derbyshire - 17 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

Indium compounds are showing great promise for 3D in-memory compute and RF integration, but more work is needed. Researchers continue to make headway into 3D device integration particularly with indium tin oxide (ITO), which is widely used in display manufacturing. Recent work indicates that different compounds of indium oxide doped with tin, gallium, or zinc combinations may boost transisto... » read more

Enabling A Chiplet Supply Chain

By Vik Chaudhry - 17 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

Chiplets have been in the news quite a bit lately. A chiplet-based architecture offers several advantages that chip designers can benefit from as they bring out new products to the market. Over the years, system designers have integrated more and more functions into a system on chip (SoC). As a result, the size of SoCs keeps increasing. Even though SoCs provide several advantages in performance... » read more

FLEX 2023 Takeaways: Flexible And Printed Electronics Move Into Electronics Manufacturing

By Gity Samadi - 17 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

By Gity Samadi and Paul Semenza The FLEX Conference, held again this year in conjunction with SEMICON West 2023, provided numerous examples of continued developments in flexible, printed, and flexible hybrid electronics technologies applied to sensing, robotics, communications, and other applications. At the same time, there is growing focus on applying various additive manufacturing equipme... » read more

Novel Assist Layers To Enhance EUV Lithography Performance Of Photoresists On Different Substrates

By Brewer Science - 16 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

In EUV lithography, good resist patterning requires an assist layer beneath it to provide adhesion to prevent pattern collapse of small features and allow for higher aspect ratios. In addition, future EUV high numerical aperture (NA) is expected to require a decrease in thickness from the overall patterning stack. In this study, we are exploring a fundamentally new approach to developing an alt... » read more

Tradeoffs Between On-Premise And On-Cloud Design

By Ann Mutschler - 16 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down discuss how and why companies are dividing up work on-premise and in the cloud, and what to watch out for, with Philip Steinke, fellow, CAD infrastructure and physical design at AMD; Mahesh Turaga, vice president of business development for cloud at Cadence Design Systems; Richard Ho, vice president hardware engineering at Lightmatter; Cr... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 16

By Jesse Allen - 16 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

Synopsys' Johannes Stahl and Tim Kogel suggest that multi-die systems require a new approach at the architecture planning phase and why chip designers can’t ignore physical effects such as layout, power, temperature, or IR-drop. Siemens' Rich Edelman argues for using the waveform window in a GUI rather than $display when debugging UVM. Cadence's Paul Scannell stresses the need for diver... » read more

AI Process Control Platform Enabling Next Generation Technology

By Tignis - 16 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

PAICe Monitor delivers AI and machine learning-enabled analytics for all stages of the semiconductor fabrication process lifecycle — from process development and ramp readiness, to high volume production. Leveraging Tignis’ Digital Twin Query Language, PAICe Monitor enables process engineers to transform in-product fault diagnoses into continuous real-time monitoring—greatly improving ... » read more

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