Advanced Packaging Moving At Breakneck Pace


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss advances in packaging with Michael Kelly, vice president of Chiplets and FCBGA Integration at Amkor; William Chen, fellow at ASE; Dick Otte, CEO of Promex Industries; and Sander Roosendaal, R&D director at Synopsys Photonics Solutions. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. L-R: Synopsys' Roosendaal; ASE's Che... » read more

Improving Uniformity And Linearity For All Masks


When it comes to mask quality, there are two vital measurements: uniformity and linearity. Uniformity measures the consistency of the size of mask features in all occurrences across the entire mask, because different instances of the same target size can vary in size due to manufacturing variation. Linearity measures how well different sizes of shapes on the manufactured mask match their target... » read more

Assembly Design Rules Slowly Emerge


Process design kits (PDKs) play an essential in ensuring that silicon technology can proceed from one generation to the next in a manner that design tools can keep up with. No such infrastructure has been needed for packaging in the past, but that's beginning to change with advanced packages. Heterogeneous assemblies are still ramping up, but their benefits are attracting new designs. “Chi... » read more

An Innovative Hybrid Cleaning Approach For Contaminant Removal in Semiconductor Packaging


The growing demand for power semiconductors, which control large currents and voltages, has resulted in their widespread use in various electronic devices, including electric vehicles (EVs). The requirement for greater performance and smaller devices has led to increased operating temperatures for these power semiconductors. This rise in temperature poses a challenge as it often leads to delami... » read more

More Than Meets The Eye: Trends In Lithography


Lithography, once the exclusive domain of artists and printmakers, also lies at the heart of integrated circuit (IC) production. The process of shining light on a substrate through a photomask to control exposure has been around since the 1960s and has been the key part of improving IC fabrication process resolution. At the time, the light sources used were in the human-visible spectrum, which ... » read more

Less Waste, Faster Results: Why Virtual Twins Are Critical To Future Semiconductor R&D


By Wojciech (Wojtek) Osowiecki, Martyn Coogans, Saravanapriyan Sriraman, Rakesh Ranjan, Yu (Joe) Lu, and David M. Fried The semiconductor industry has long depended on physical experimentation to achieve the precision needed for advanced chip manufacturing. However, this traditional method comes with significant environmental costs—high energy consumption, material waste, and greenhouse ga... » read more

Integrated Design Ecosystem For Chiplets And Heterogeneous Integration In Advanced Packaging Technology


As the demand for high-performance computing (HPC) continues to grow, chiplets and heterogeneous integration have emerged as key solutions due to their significant advantages in improving yield, reusing IP, enhancing performance, and optimizing costs. The integration of chiplets, particularly for AI applications, necessitates a greater number of connections than traditional monolithic system-on... » read more

Electrifying Everything: Power Moves Toward ICs


As electronic systems grow increasingly complex and energy-intensive, traditional power management methods — centered on centralized systems and external components — are proving inadequate. The next wave of innovation is to bring power control closer to the action — directly on the chip or into a heterogeneous package. This change is driven by a relentless pursuit of efficiency, scala... » read more

Upcoming Challenges And Changes In Semiconductor Materials


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Dan Brewer and Srikanth Kommu, co-CEOs at Brewer Science, to talk about current and future changes in materials used in semiconductor manufacturing and adjacent markets. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What was behind the decision to have co-CEOs instead of just one? Brewer: We see a lot of value to having multiple perspectives b... » read more

Advancing Medical Devices Through Heterogeneous Integration


As medical treatments continue to evolve, innovation in medical devices plays a vital role, enabling increasingly complex, precise, and safer interventions. For example: Endoscopic devices provide high-resolution in vivo imaging, Wearable sensors offer real-time monitoring of vital signs, Implantable devices engage with the human body at the cellular level. These devices’ ongo... » read more

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