Quantum Computing: How Advances May Reshape Our Understanding Of The World


After decades spent gestating in labs, quantum computing has finally reached an inflection point between theoretical promise and practical implementation. From discoveries in pharmaceutical and material sciences to boosting artificial intelligence (AI) and climate modeling, quantum computing is on the cusp of providing an entirely new way to solve highly complex problems — which could ultimat... » read more

Precision Under Pressure: Managing Materials Complexity In Advanced Packaging


In the race to extend Moore's Law through advanced packaging, the limits of precision are no longer defined solely by lithography. Increasingly, they are dictated by the unpredictable behavior of materials. Semiconductor packaging today is no longer limited to just silicon and copper. It includes an expanding range of polymers, adhesives, dielectrics, exotic metals, along with substrates suc... » read more

Increasing Semiconductor Device Reliability Requires Adding More Wafer Inspection


Some industry sectors such as automotive and medical continue to push for higher and higher reliability levels; however, many fabs are having difficulties achieving them. Current inspection regimes still allow too many defects to pass through and escape to the field – primarily because of time and expense issues. Too much wafer is still left uninspected One fundamental problem is the amount... » read more

Correlation & Commonality Analysis In Complex Semiconductor Ecosystems


The semiconductor industry is entering an era defined by heterogeneous integration and complex packaging technologies. Innovations such as wafer-on-wafer bonding, chiplets, multi-stacked die (2.5D/3D), bumping, and system-in-package architectures are enabling unprecedented performance and functionality. However, with these advances comes an explosion in manufacturing complexity and ecosy... » read more

Scaling Memory With Molybdenum


Molybdenum is looking increasingly promising as a replacement for a variety of metals commonly used in semiconductor manufacturing today, especially at leading-edge nodes. One by one, chipmakers are crossing metals off the list at advanced nodes. While ruthenium liners are nearly ready for production, the metal is not ready to replace copper in highly scaled interconnects. Ruthenium is very ... » read more

Collaboration Is Key To Growing Semiconductor Industry


John Kibarian, CEO and co-founder of PDF Solutions and a member of the ESD Alliance (ESDA) Governing Council, will deliver a keynote during the CEO Summit at SEMICON West in October titled “Revolutionizing Semiconductor Collaboration: The Emergence of AI-Driven Industry Platforms.” He recently shared with me a summary of what his talk will cover and his perspective on why collabora... » read more

Glass Substrates Gain Momentum


As a package substrate, the benefits of glass are substantial. It's extremely flat with lower thermal expansion than organic substrates, which simplifies lithography. And that's just for starters. Warpage, a growing problem for multichip packages, is greatly reduced. Chips can be hybrid bonded to redistribution layer pads on glass. And relative to organic-core substrates, glass provides very... » read more

Simulating Atomic Layer Processing Of 2D Materials


Integrating 2D materials into sustainable electronic devices presents key challenges, particularly in depositing or etching nanometer-thick layers on high aspect ratio structures. Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) offers atomic-level precision and has demonstrated success in producing atomically thin layers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) like MoS2. Synopsys has developed an industry-grade ... » read more

Virtual Twins: Layers Of Challenges


Virtual twins can provide deep insights into complex systems at any point in time, but creating them requires integrating a stack of abstractions that don't naturally go together. One abstraction may be mechanical, another electrical, and the data used to create those abstraction layers needs to be fused together logically and updated over time. David Fried, corporate vice president at Lam Rese... » read more

Using AI For Fault Detection And Classification In Manufacturing


Third in a seven-part series: Classic fault detection and classification has some classic problems. It's reactive, time-consuming to set up, and any product change involves significant man-hours. Even then, it still misses a lot of problems, which result in scrap. This is where machine learning can excel, because it can sift through huge amounts of data from thousands of sensors and find outlie... » read more

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