Assist Layers: The Unsung Heroes of EUV Lithography

By Katherine Derbyshire - 20 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

Most discussions of advanced lithography focus on three elements — the exposure system, photomasks, and photoresists — but that's only part of the challenge. Successfully transferring a pattern from the photomask to a physical structure on the wafer also depends on a variety of films working together, including the underlayers, the developers, and a variety of surface treatments. In fact... » read more

A Deposition And Etch Technique To Lower Resistance Of Semiconductor Metal Lines

By Timothy Yang - 20 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

Copper's resistivity depends on its crystal structure, void volume, grain boundaries and material interface mismatch, which becomes more significant at smaller scales. The formation of copper (Cu) wires is traditionally done by etching a trench pattern in low-k silicon dioxide using a trench etch process, and subsequently filling the trench with Cu via a damascene flow. Unfortunately, this meth... » read more

Smarter Ways To Manufacture Chips

By Anne Meixner - 20 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

OSAT and wafer fabs are beginning to invest in Industry 4.0 solutions in order to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs, but it's a complicated process that involves setting up frameworks to evaluate different options and goals. Semiconductor manufacturing facilities have relied on dedicated automation teams for decades. These teams track and schedule chip production, respond to equi... » read more

Supply Chain Resilience And Agility: Two Critical Sides Of The Same Coin

By Bettina Weiss - 20 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

Over the past three years of major global disruptions, the supply chains of many industries have sharpened their focus on resilience. Today, discussions on electronics industry resilience center on redundancy across suppliers, multi-tier supplier mapping, nearshoring, reducing the number of unique parts, regionalizing supply chains, and business continuity planning. Resilience connotes a st... » read more

Nanoimprint Finally Finds Its Footing

By Gregory Haley - 20 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 2

Nanoimprint lithography, which for decades has trailed behind traditional optical lithography, is emerging as the technology of choice for the rapidly growing photonics and biotech chips markets. First introduced in the mid-1990s, nanoimprint lithography (NIL) has consistently been touted as a lower-cost alternative to traditional optical lithography. Even today, NIL potentially is capable o... » read more

100G Ethernet At The Edge

By Ed Sperling - 19 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

The amount of data is growing, and so is the need to process it closer to the source. The edge is a middle ground between the cloud and the end point, close enough to where data is generated to reduce the time it takes to process that data, yet still powerful enough to analyze that data quickly and send it wherever it is needed. But to make this all work requires faster conduits for that data i... » read more

How Chip Engineers Plan To Use AI

By Ed Sperling - 19 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss how AI is being used today and how engineers expect to use it in the future, with Michael Jackson, corporate vice president for R&D at Cadence; Joel Sumner, vice president of semiconductor and electronics engineering at National Instruments; Grace Yu, product and engineering manager at Meta; and David Pan, professor in the ... » read more

Blog Review: April 19

By Jesse Allen - 19 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

Synopsys' Soren Smidstrup and Kerim Genc explore how materials modeling helps battery designers explore the wide playing field for new battery materials and optimize performance by co-designing the structure and chemistry of new batteries, ultimately shortening development time and cost. Siemens' Stephen Chavez finds that enabling multiple engineers to work simultaneously within the same PCB... » read more

Nanophotonic Sensor Implants With 3D Hybrid Periodic-Amorphous Photonic Crystals For Wide-Angle Monitoring Of Long-Term In-Vivo Intraocular Pressure

By Samsung - 19 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

In this work, we have developed a nanophotonic-based optomechnical device and reported the smallest intraocular pressure (IOP) implant (Dia: 500 um, Thick: 200 um) that can be placed in any area under the cornea into the anterior chamber without touching the endothelium. The sensor is made of only flexible biocompatible silicone/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and structured as 3D hybrid photonic c... » read more

Heterogeneous Chip Assembly Helps Optimize Medical And Wearable Devices

By Promex Industries - 19 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

Heterogeneous integration (HI) has significant implications for the medical, health, and wearables industry. At Promex, we utilize a variety of complex assembly processes to achieve HI for medical and biotech applications. This post will take a closer look at the processes associated with assembling these classes of devices. Click here to read more. » read more

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