Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

By Ed Sperling - 22 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

Onshoring and the supply chain Efforts to patch up supply chain weaknesses by moving more manufacturing onshore in the United States and Europe are generating a lot of buzz. Morris Chang, TMSC's founder, described those moves as "a very expensive exercise in futility," during an interview with the Brookings Institution and Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that it is like... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power

By Jesse Allen - 22 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

Tools & IP Synopsys unveiled a new neural processing unit (NPU) IP and toolchain. DesignWare ARC NPX6 NPU IP scales from 4K to 96K MACs with power efficiency of 30 TOPS/Watt. A single instance offers 250 TOPS at 1.3 GHz on 5nm processes in worst-case conditions, or up to 440 TOPS by using new sparsity features, which can increase the performance and decrease energy demands of executing a n... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

By SE Staff - 22 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

Automotive, mobility Synopsys uncorked its new neural processor IP, which can be used to develop scalable neural processors in automotive and consumer products. The ARC NPX6 NPU IP can run at 3,500 TOPS (30 TOPS per watt), running up to 96K MACs with enhanced utilization, new sparsity features and new interconnect for scalability. The ARC NPX6FS NPU IP and MetaWare MX Toolkit for Safety can be... » read more

Stress tensor mesostructures for deterministic figuring of thin substrates

By Technical Paper Link - 21 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

New research paper from MIT and University of Arizona, funded by NASA. Abstract "Accessing the immense value of freeform surfaces for mass-sensitive applications such as space optics or metaform optical components requires fabrication processes that are suited to figuring thin substrates. We present stress tensor mesostructures for precisely correcting figure errors, even after microstruc... » read more

Challenges For Achieving Automotive Grade 1/0 Reliability In FCBGA and fcCSP Packages

By Knowlton Olmstead - 21 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

As the quantity, complexity, and functions of electronic devices in automobiles increase, understanding and characterizing package reliability is of significant concern and importance. The Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) Q-100 specification for Grade 1 and 0 reliability introduces unique challenges as thermal cycling (TC) and high temperature storage (HTS) requirements increase. Additional... » read more

Curvilinear Photomasks Can Be Made Today

By Jan Willis - 21 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

Multi-beam mask writers (MBMWs) and GPU-accelerated curvilinear ILT are enabling curvilinear photomasks to be made today. Despite the benefits of improved process windows, curvilinear photomask adoption is slow. Industry luminaries surveyed by the eBeam Initiative in 2021 ranked photomask inspection and infrastructure as the top barriers to adoption, as shown in figure 1. Yet only 4% say the b... » read more

Photomask Shortages Grow At Mature Nodes

By Mark LaPedus - 21 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 2

A surge in demand for chips at mature nodes, coupled with aging photomask-making equipment at those geometries, are causing significant concern across the supply chain. These issues began to surface only recently, but they are particularly worrisome for photomasks, which are critical for chip production. Manufacturing capacity is especially tight for photomasks at 28nm and above, driving up ... » read more

Equipment Perspective At U.S. Senate Hearing On Chipmaking

By Tim Archer - 21 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

In March, Lam Research President and CEO Tim Archer testified before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The hearing examined a variety of issues including the correlation between American competitiveness and semiconductors, the impact of vulnerabilities in semiconductor supply chains and the importance of CHIPS legislation within the U.S. Innovation a... » read more

Big Changes In Materials And Processes For IC Manufacturing

By Ed Sperling And Laura Peters - 21 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 3

Rama Puligadda, CTO at Brewer Science, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about a broad set of changes in semiconductor manufacturing, packaging, and materials, and how that will affect reliability, processes, and equipment across the supply chain. SE: What role do sacrificial materials play in semiconductor manufacturing, and how is that changing at new process nodes? Puliga... » read more

Mask And Metrology Technology Trends

By Bob Smith - 21 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

Aselta Nanographics of Grenoble, France, which produces software for wafer and mask patterning based on e-beam technology for IC manufacturing, along with advanced metrology solutions for scanning electron microscopes, recently became an ESD Alliance member. Adding to its impressive credentials, Aselta is a spin-off of CEA-Leti, the electronics and information technologies research institut... » read more

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