2024 UMC Sustainability Report


Message from UMC's ESG Steering Committee Chairman: Jason Wang and Shan-Chieh Chien, Co-presidents and ESG Steering Committee Chairmen. "While the global economy gradually recovered from the pandemic, 2024 presented different challenges, including geopolitical shifts, inflation, inventory adjustments, and industry overcapacity. Despite these headwinds, our management team demonstrated strong... » read more

From Latency To Reaction: Simulating The Next Wafer Demand Inflection


The semiconductor industry faces an unprecedented paradox: AI demand is booming, fab investments are rising, yet wafer shipments remain stubbornly flat. What's driving this disconnect, and when will it break? As of mid-2025, the global silicon wafer market appears calm on the surface, but underlying structural tensions are quietly mounting. The demand for AI semiconductors remains resilient,... » read more

The End Of Copper Interconnects?


After nearly three decades, the era of copper interconnects may be coming to an end. Sort of. At interconnect CDs below 10nm, copper is no longer the best metallization choice. Yet it remains unsurpassed for larger features. The most serious challenge to continued copper scaling is the metal’s dramatic increase in resistivity at dimensions below its relatively large (40nm) mean free path l... » read more

Transferable Hybrid Bonding Technique That Allows For High Integration Density In Advanced Packaging


A technical paper titled "Hierarchical Multi-Layer and Stacking Vias with Novel Structure by Transferrable Cu/Polymer Hybrid Bonding for High Speed Digital Applications" was published by researchers at Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Brewer Science. The paper demonstrates a "novel structure with hierarchical multi-layer stacking vias as well as transferred hybrid bonding,... » read more

AI, From A To Z


First in a seven-part series: What's the difference between AI, ML, DL, LLMs, and agentic AI? Is it truly revolutionary, or is it an evolutionary series of steps that have enabled machines to do much more than in the past? Jon Herlocker, vice president and general manager of software analytics at Cohu, talks about the evolution of AI over nearly 70 years, the chain of innovation that has enable... » read more

Advancing Outlier And Quality Control Methodologies


Traditional outlier and quality control methodologies often assume that data will conform to ideal, Gaussian distributions. In practice, this is rarely the case. Upstream variability in manufacturing—ranging from process variation to equipment inconsistencies—can significantly impact the behavior of otherwise good die. Identifying subtle yield detractors requires examining a broader set of ... » read more

On-Die And In-Package Interconnects: eBook


We live in the Information Age, but if information cannot get to where it's intended to go, it does no good. And the way information gets from here to there is through interconnects. This report focuses on different interconnect structures, such as lines, vias, buses, and networks-on-chip, and how they’re constructed. As always, we consider the design, test, reliability, and security impli... » read more

Engineering Reliable Heat Dissipation With Indium-Silver Thermal Interfaces


In recent years, rapid technological advancements in the field of high-performance computing have driven the development of increasingly sophisticated and powerful computing devices. This growth is expected to continue, with expansion into areas such as central processing units (CPUs), artificial intelligence (AI) systems, and automotive products. Flip chip lidded ball grid array (FCLBGA) pa... » read more

GPU Acceleration Of Rigorous Lithography Simulations


Producing modern semiconductor devices is an immensely challenging process. Successful execution entails advanced process nodes, novel device architectures, new materials, and many fabrication steps. One especially challenging area is lithography, in which light is sent through a photomask, passes through a projection system of lenses and mirrors, and strikes the substrate to create the device ... » read more

AI, Product Lifecycle Management, Market Dynamics: Q&A With Jay Vleeschhouwer Of Griffin Securities 


In the world of EDA, Jay Vleeschhouwer, managing director of software research at Griffin Securities, needs no introduction. His presentation on the State of EDA is standing room only at the yearly Design Automation Conference (DAC). He recently agreed to a discussion with me where we talked about AI and EDA, an interesting development with product lifecycle management and global dynamics af... » read more

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