category: Blogs – MD

category: IoT, Security & Automotive

Estimating Pi Day
By Chris Mack - 14 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

Today is pi day (3/14 – get it?), the not-exactly-official day to celebrate the mysteries of a circle’s circumference over its diameter.  When this most famous numerical expression of irrationality is closely combined with the second most famous irrational number –Euler’s constant, e - the result is a common mode of celebration today:  eating pie.  Enthusiasts pride themselves on mem... » read more

FD-SOI Workshop ppts – STM’s 1st 28nm FD-SOI product line
By Various Writers - 12 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

The SOI Consortium’s 6th FD-SOI workshop, held just after ISSCC, yielded some exciting news. Most of the presentations are freely available for downloading from the SOI Consortium website. Here are the highlights. STMicroelectronics In a terrific presentation by Giorgio Cesana, Marketing Director at STMicroelectronics, he revealed that the company would be releasing a major product line b... » read more

Advanced Semiconductor Device Lithography – pushing the optical limit for lithography
By Michael Watts - 11 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

Michael P. C. Watts Given that the alternatives all have challenges, it looks to me that optical lithography will have to deliver the 16 nm and most likely the 11 nm node. In my last blog, I reviewed the news from SPIE’s Advanced Lithography conference on all the non-optical solutions. My conclusion was that in the best case, EUV and imprint could just make the 11 nm node but both have out... » read more

European Policy Considerations for Supporting the 450mm Supply Chain and Existing Manufacturing
By SEMI - 08 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Heinz Kundert, president, SEMI Europe European competitiveness in the semiconductor industry was the focus of the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium Europe 2012 executive conference recently held in Munich, Germany. Over 200 delegates from 20 countries gathered to hear about the strengths and issues of concern for chip manufacturing in Europe, including the implications of the industry-wide... » read more

Advanced Semiconductor Device Lithography – what is going to happen next ?
By Michael Watts - 07 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

by Michael P. C. Watts The noise and hype level around lithography these days is rather loud. At SPIE’s Advanced Lithography conference this year, a huge crowd heard all the different strategies and opinions. Is there any way to make sense of all the confusion? This is my view ! To start, I think it’s worth remembering what has to be accomplished. The goal is to manufacture sub 22 nm ... » read more

Colorblind—Colorless versus Two-Color Double Patterning Design
By David Abercrombie - 05 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

By David Abercrombie People are always asking “What should I expect when I start designing at 20nm using double patterning?” It’s a good question, but in many real aspects, the answer is “It depends,” and that is not very satisfying to hear. The way that a designer will interact with the constraints that double patterning (DP) brings is very dependent on the design methodology used. ... » read more

FD-SOI – Recent Consortium Results (Part 1 of 3): Manufacturing
By Various Writers - 05 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

The most recent SOI Consortium benchmarking study regarding 28nm and 20nm FD-SOI results (silicon-calibrated simulations at the 28nm node of complex circuits including ARM cores and DDR3 memory controllers) covered a lot of ground. This post is part 1 of a 3-part blog series that will be highlighting key points with respect to: 1. manufacturing; 2. power & performance; 3. 20nm benchmarking ... » read more

Directed Self Assembly – record breaking small features
By Michael Watts - 27 Feb, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Michael P.C. Watts Directed Self Assembly (DSA) was the breakout subject at this year’s SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference. This conference is the biggest annual get together for lithography nerds, and I use it to keep up with the latest academic and industrial trends. Anyone who is anyone seems to be evaluating DSA. On a personal note, as it turns out, I did my PhD in block copolymer... » read more

Capex Disconnect
By Joanne Itow - 21 Feb, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Joanne Itow Most semiconductor companies have completed their 4th quarter 2011 earnings calls and announced their capital expenditure budgets for 2012. Current capex plans indicate a weaker spending year for the industry compared to 2011. Based on current announced plans, capex spending would fall 4.5% to $59.8 billion in 2012. Semico believes some companies may be miscalculating the market... » read more

AL 2012 – Day 3
By Chris Mack - 16 Feb, 2012 - Comments: 0

I continue to focus on line-edge roughness in my own research.  This means that I attended papers in every conference in the symposium, since LER is an issue that cuts across all topics in lithography.  (To be truthful, I meant to go to a paper in the new etch conference that talked about LER, but never made it.)  LER is finally, in my opinion, getting the attention it deserves.  I believe,... » read more

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