Layers Of Business And Tech Issues


Slice an onion in half and one onion pretty much looks like any other onion. Peel it back, layer by layer, and put it under a powerful microscope, and each layer suddenly looks very different. The same is true for semiconductors. To the outside world, a chip is a chip and an interconnect is an interconnect. Each one has different specs, but even the parts that make up those chips look remar... » read more

Semiconductor Memory Aids


By Brian Fuller It's not hard to forget that semiconductor memory remains one of the most relentless challenges in system design. It sometimes doesn’t get the ink that sexier semiconductor design topics do, but it’s there. Always. Twenty years ago this year, University of Virginia computer scientists William Wulf and Sally McKee published a paper that popularized the term semiconductor ... » read more

I Just Want Closure!


By Jean-Marie Brunet We all know it by now, but let’s say it one more time for the cameras—the level of complexity of closure at 20 nm and below is considerably higher than for any previous nodes. While the migration of manufacturing requirements into design started with a few suggested activities at 65 nm, such as recommended rules compliance, lithography checks, and critical area analysi... » read more

What Is Going On With Sub-20nm Flash?


By Gill Lee This week I’ll be participating in a panel discussion at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, CA. The panel’s topic, Flash Below 20nm: What is Coming and When?, couldn’t be more timely. Particularly in light of a leading NAND manufacturer’s recent announcement that they will begin mass production of the semiconductor industry’s first 3D vertical NAND flash memory later... » read more

Japan: Latest Investment Activities


By Dan Tracy and Yoichiro Ando Restructuring and consolidation has led to a new focus for the semiconductor manufacturers in Japan. As a result, the semiconductor equipment market in Japan will experience double-digit growth in both 2013 and 2014, driven by higher spending for memory production and in spending increases planned for the manufacturing of power semiconductors and “More than Moo... » read more

Over 65% Smartphone RF Switches SOI, Says Yole; Power Amps Next


By Adele Hars The industry research firm Yole Développement says that more than 65 percent of substrates used in fabricating switches for handsets are SOI-based. This is a high-growth part of the market, putting up double-digit increases. Like a standard SOI wafer, an RF SOI substrate has an active (“top”) layer on which CMOS transistors are built, with an isolating (“BOx”) ... » read more

Interacting With Printed Sensors


By Michael P.C. Watts If there is one feature that distinguishes all our modern portable devices from the traditional PC (a wonderful concept—the “traditional PC”), it’s the way we interact. Separate keyboards are done. It's all touchscreens on pretty much everything, along with other sensor opportunities. There are many uses for the built-in cameras in cell phones from videoconfere... » read more

Materials, Software And Techniques


The future of advanced semiconductor technology is about to split evenly into three different areas. On the leading edge of manufacturing, Applied Materials CEO Mike Splinter called it correctly—it’s all about materials. Just shrinking features isn’t buying much anymore. In fact, at advanced nodes, with extra margin built into designs, it frequently doesn’t buy anything except extra ... » read more

The Alphabet Soup Of New Material Science


By Joanne Itow Escaping the scorching Arizona temperatures is only one reason why I always look forward to Semicon West. This year’s event was packed with an exceptional variety of activities and vendors. What was the most memorable take-away from the show? There were plenty of panels, presentation and networking discussions on the 450mm wafer transition and EUV. But the biggest thing that I... » read more

Changes And Challenges


At 130nm, the shift to copper interconnects and 300mm wafer sizes was considered to be the most difficult transition in its long and incredibly efficient history. The next chapter will be even tougher. It’s not that change is a foreign concept to semiconductor design and manufacturing. In fact, it’s probably the only constant over the past 50 years. But in the past, those changes tended ... » read more

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