E-Beam Inspection Proves Essential For Advanced Nodes


Electron-beam inspection is proving to be indispensable for finding critical defects at sub-5nm dimensions. The challenge now is how to speed up the process to make it economically palatable to fabs. E-beam inspection's notorious sensitivity-throughput tradeoff has made comprehensive defect coverage with e-beam at these advanced nodes especially problematic. For Intel’s 18A logic node (~1.... » read more

Chip Complexity Drives Innovation In Automated Test Equipment


Innovations in semiconductor technology—such as advancements in AI high-performance computing (HPC), Angstrom-scale silicon process nodes, silicon photonics, and automotive xEV wideband gap power transistor applications—require automated test equipment (ATE) to evolve at an unprecedented rate. As chip complexity grows, the challenges in design, manufacturing, and test multiply. It is a comp... » read more

Atomic Force Microscopy: The Definitive AFM Modes Handbook


This handbook illustrates the wide variety of operating modes available on Bruker AFMs, going well beyond the standard high‑resolution topographic imaging capabilities of AFM. The modes are broken into seven separate categories: morphology, electromagnetic properties, thermal properties, mechanical properties, chemical properties, electrochemical properties, and manipulation. Each category be... » read more

Overview of Silicon Carbide Technology: Status, Challenges, Key Drivers, and Product Roadmap


Abstract: Arguably, SiC technology is the most rapidly expanding IC manufacturing technology driven mostly by the aggressive roadmap for battery electric vehicle penetration and also industrial high-voltage/high-power applications. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art of SiC technology focusing on the challenges starting from the difficult and lengthy SiC substr... » read more

Who Is Most Likely To Link Financial And Manufacturing Data?


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss which companies have the most to gain from linking financial data with manufacturing data analytics platforms with Dieter Rathei, CEO of DR Yield; Jon Holt, senior director of product management at PDF Solutions, Alex Burlak, vice president of advanced analytics and test at proteanTecs; and Dirk de Vries, technical program ma... » read more

Overview Of Printed And Flexible Electronics: Technology Fundamentals, Design And Practical Applications


A new technical paper titled "Computing with Printed and Flexible Electronics" was published by researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Pragmatic Semiconductor Ltd and University of Patras. Abstract "Printed and flexible electronics (PFE) have emerged as the ubiquitous solution for application domains at the extreme edge, where the demands for low manufacturing and operational cos... » read more

Radiation, Temperature, Power Challenges For Chips In Space


Mission-critical hardware used in space is not supposed to fail at all, because lives may be lost in addition to resources, availability, performance, and budgets. For space applications, failure can occur due to a range of factors, including the weather on the day of launch, human error, environmental conditions, unexpected or unknown hazards and degradation of parts to chemical factors, aging... » read more

Blog Review: May 7


Cadence’s Mayank Bhatnagar examines the challenge of ensuring the functional safety of disaggregated designs and how UCIe can serve as a certified way to connect individual components. Siemens’ Charlie Olson explores the causes of inter-domain leakage when a DC path is formed between two power rails and how to overcome the limitations of traditional electrical rule checking. Synopsys�... » read more

Benefits Of Memory-Centric Computing (ETH Zurich)


A new technical paper titled "Memory-Centric Computing: Solving Computing's Memory Problem" was published by researchers at ETH Zurich. Abstract "Computing has a huge memory problem. The memory system, consisting of multiple technologies at different levels, is responsible for most of the energy consumption, performance bottlenecks, robustness problems, monetary cost, and hardware real esta... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: May 6


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=427 /] Find more semiconductor research papers here.   » read more

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