Power/Performance Bits: April 20


Multiplexing twisted light Researchers from University of California San Diego and University of California Berkeley found a way to multiplex light by using discrete twisting laser beams from antennas made up of concentric rings. "It's the first time that lasers producing twisted light have been directly multiplexed," said Boubacar Kanté, an Associate Professor at UC Berkeley's Department ... » read more

Foundry Wars Begin


Leading-edge foundry vendors are gearing up for a new, high-stakes spending and technology race, setting the stage for a possible shakeup across the semiconductor manufacturing landscape. In March, Intel re-entered the foundry business, positioning itself against Samsung and TSMC at the leading edge, and against a multitude of foundries working at older nodes. Intel announced plans to build ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers TSMC has posted strong results and raised its capital spending budget to $30 billion, up from its prior guidance of $25 billion to $28 billion in 2021. “Its outlook indicates broad-based semiconductor demand continues to strengthen amid supply chain tightness,” said Weston Twigg, an analyst at KeyBanc, in a research note. “TSMC posted another quarter of strong demand for leadi... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Siemens Digital Industries Software will acquire OneSpin Solutions, a provider of formal verification tools. The company's portfolio of formal tools and apps covers a wide range of design verification, equivalence checking, and functional safety, as well as solutions for trust and security checking. Siemens plants to add OneSpin's technology to the Xcelerator portfolio of verification tools. ... » read more

Debug And Traceability Of MCMs And Chiplets In The Manufacturing Test Process


Single die packages and products have been the norm for decades. Moreover, so has multi-chip modules (MCMs) or system in package (SiP) for quite some time. Understandably, with ASICs and SoCs becoming larger while silicon geometries continue to get smaller, there is an opportunity to combine even more functionality into a smaller form factor for the end product. Hence, new advancements in desig... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Pervasive computing — IoT, edge, cloud, data center, and back PC maker Dell Technologies is spinning off 81% equity ownership of VMWare to two standalone public companies. VMWare, founded in 1998, provides software to manage networking, apps, and cloud/data center. VMWare will pay a special dividend to its investing, which will generate $9.3 – $9.7 billion for Dell to use toward cutting it... » read more

The Quest For Curvilinear Photomasks


The semiconductor industry is making noticeable progress on the development of advanced curvilinear photomasks, a technology that has broad implications for chip designs at the most advanced nodes and the ability to manufacture those chips faster and cheaper. The question now is when will this technology move beyond its niche-oriented status and ramp up into high-volume manufacturing. For ye... » read more

Latest IC Forecast: Big Demand, Shortages


Over the last year, the semiconductor industry has seen its share of highs, lows and uncertainties. In early 2020, the business looked bright, but the IC market dropped amid the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. Throughout 2020 different countries implemented a number of measures to mitigate the outbreak, such as stay-at-home orders and business closures. Economic turmoil and job losses soon follo... » read more

Will An Adhesion Promoter Prevent Delamination?


Power semiconductor packages are used in high temperature, high voltage environments. With the increase of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) in the automotive market, demands on (and for) power packages have been growing. Packages for automotive applications must pass extensive testing for safety, therefore, packaging reliability is essential. As more semiconductor pack... » read more

Making Chip Packaging More Reliable


Packaging houses are readying the next wave of IC packages, but these products must prove to be reliable before they are incorporated into systems. These packages involve several advanced technologies, such as 2.5D/3D, chiplets and fan-out, but vendors also are working on new versions of more mature package types, like wirebond and leadframe technologies. As with previous products, packaging... » read more

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