Notes From The Chip Beat


Over the last several months, I’ve attended a number of conferences, such as IEDM, SPIE, the FD-SOI Summit and others. At each conference, there is a dizzying amount of information and data. Eventually, some information turns into an article, while most ends up buried in a reporter’s notebook. In any case, here are five observations I’ve made, based on those and other events in the pa... » read more

The Future Of Patterning


Greg McIntyre, director of advanced patterning at imec, offers his thoughts on what it’s like to work at one of the world’s leading nanoelectronics R&D centers, as well as the importance of eBeam technology to lithography and mask making, what’s driving up confidence in EUV, and the latest on imec’s joint venture with JSR in EUV resist development. [youtube vid=q8cA_9rWecU] » read more

What Drives SADP BEOL Variability?


Until EUV lithography becomes a reality, multiple patterning technologies such as triple litho-etch (LELELE), self-aligned double patterning (SADP), and self-aligned quadruple patterning (SAQP) are being used to meet the stringent patterning demands of advanced back-end-of-line (BEOL) technologies. For the 7nm technology node, patterning requirements include a metal pitch of 40nm or less. This ... » read more

1.41 ‘Giga-Searches’ Per Second?


Data centers, which are the engines of the Internet, are responsible for the vast amount of traffic that flows across the network. And, it’s no revelation; our digital universe and data center traffic will reach 10.4 zettabytes (ZB) by 2019, the equivalent to 144 trillion hours of streaming music. As apps and services become more data hungry, the higher the allowance for data traffic we’re... » read more

North America Equipment Market Rebounds


Coming off of two consecutive down years, the North America semiconductor fab equipment market is set to experience growth this year and into 2018. The market is primarily being driven by investments from Samsung, Intel, GlobalFoundries, and Micron, which are expected to account for 85 percent of fab equipment purchased in the region this year. These fab equipment purchases are targeted ... » read more

Enabling Magnetic Tunnel Junctions Array Processing For Embedded STT MRAM


The semiconductor industry is entering a new era of next-generation memory technologies, with several major inflections taking shape. Among these is the emergence of Magnetic RAM (MRAM). Over several posts, I’ll provide background on what is driving the adoption of MRAM, highlight some of the initial challenges and discuss progress on making STT MRAM commerically viable. Today, a typical m... » read more

The Evolution Of EUV


EUV systems are beginning to ship to large foundries in volume, setting the stage for one of the biggest leaps in technology the semiconductor industry has ever witnessed. ASML has emerged as the sole supplier in this market, but it has taken an entire ecosystem to develop EUV. It has taken billions of dollars of investment by ASML, along with enormous cash infusions by Intel and TSMC, contr... » read more

Sizing up China’s Fab Tool Biz


China is pouring billions of dollars into its semiconductor industry and is building several new fabs. As reported, China is bolstering its IC industry for good reason. China is trying to reduce its huge trade imbalance in ICs. The country continues to import a large percentage of its chips from foreign vendors. Behind the scenes, China also continues to develop its domestic semiconductor eq... » read more

Photoresist Shape In 3D


Things were easy for integrators when the pattern they had on the mask ended up being the pattern they wanted on the chip. Multi-patterning schemes such as Self-Aligned Double Patterning (SADP) and Self-Aligned Quadruple Patterning (SAQP) have changed that dramatically. Now, what you have on the mask determines only a part of what you will get at the end. You will only obtain your final product... » read more

SEMI Members Mobilize For 2017 SEMI Washington Forum


SEMI hosted 24 industry executives in Washington, DC on March 28 & 29 to take part in the annual SEMI Washington Forum. The Washington Forum, which is supported by SEMI’s North American Advisory Board (NAAB), gives SEMI member company executives a chance to come to the Nation’s capital for a firsthand experience in engaging policymakers on the issues that are pertinent to the industry. ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →