5 Issues Under The Foundry Radar


In the foundry business, the leading-edge segment grabs most, if not all, of the headlines. Foundry vendors, of course, are ramping up 16nm/14nm finFET processes, with 10nm and 7nm in R&D. The leading-edge foundry business is sizable, but it’s not the only thing going on in the competitive arena. In fact, there are battles taking place in many other foundry segments, such as 2.5D/3D packag... » read more

Fab Capacity Shortages


Planning fab capacity is a little like parachuting out of an airplane. Your chances of getting hurt are 50-50 every time you jump, and past experience doesn't necessarily make it safer the next time. At the leading edge, there is debate about just how much capacity should be added at 16/14nm, or whether the lion's share of that investment should go to 10nm or even 7nm. At least part of the d... » read more

5 Issues Under The SPIE Radar


As usual, the recent SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference was a busy, if not an overwhelming, event. At the event, there were endless presentations on the usual subjects, such as design, patterning, metrology and photoresists. And as in past years, one left the event with more questions than answers. At this year’s event, the most obvious question was (and still is) clear: Will extreme ult... » read more

Full Steam Ahead For China Inc.


Were you in Shanghai this week? If not, you missed the biggest Semicon event in the world. Semicon China broke records this year. With more than 1,000 companies participating, and 570,000 square meters of exhibition space, Semicon China attracted more than 50,000 visitors, making it the largest Semicon event in the world. All the sessions we attended were standing room only. Key areas of fo... » read more

“Make in India”


By Bettina Weiss In recent weeks, I have been talking to SEMI members and other stakeholders about India. Some consider any semiconductor industry development in the country a dream. Others are looking more closely at current indicators of something real and tangible, trying to determine whether to get involved. The electronics sector in India will have to satisfy a huge demand growth... » read more

Capacity Constraints And DFM At Mature Nodes


We’re witnessing an interesting phenomenon in the SoC segment of the semiconductor industry today. One might call it the “forced waterfall effect.” What I’m referring to is the tendency for production at semiconductor nodes older than the leading edge to be under long-term foundry capacity constraints. Normally this occurs with the “hot process node,” that is, the leading edge wh... » read more

LIFT Your 3D Printing Application


A major focus at Photonics West 2015 was 3D additive manufacturing. There were sessions on laser additive processing, digital light fabrication, and MOEMS devices. In all sessions, there were papers about systems, materials processing and applications. Here are a few of the papers that caught my attention. Two photon fabrication was the most commonly reported technique, it is the only way to... » read more

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!


ASML announced that they are going into the pellicle business at 2:15pm on February 25 at the SPIE Advanced Lithography Symposium in San Jose. These are not your garden variety plastic membrane pellicles, mind you, but rather EUV pellicles made out of 50nm thick polysilicon film and stretched on frames that can be attached, removed and reattached on EUV masks. Dr. Carmen Zoldesi of ASML reveal... » read more

GaN Manufacturing Meets Big Silicon


I have been talking about GaN on Silicon for several years because it offers a path to cost reduction in LED’s in the same way as silicon semiconductors. This year at Photonics West 2015, Aixtron presented its next generation 6-inch wafer system with all the automation that the semiconductor guys expect to be able to build GaN power transistors. The systems are configured as cluster tools... » read more

The Power Of Collaboration: Solutions For Improving Manufacturing


The Fab Owners Association (FOA) held its third annual Collaborative Forum in Santa Clara, Calif., earlier this month. The focus of this event was to discuss how companies are able to work together to improve manufacturing efficiencies in wafer fabs. The forum is by invite only to FOA members, and I was invited to make a presentation on the market trends due to the impact of MEMS and Sensors. ... » read more

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