category: Manufacturing, Packaging and Materials

category: IoT, Security & Automotive

Fab Tool Biz Faces Challenges In 2017
By Mark LaPedus - 15 Dec, 2016 - Comments: 3

After experiencing a gradual recovery and positive growth in 2016, the semiconductor equipment industry sees a mixed picture as well as some uncertainty in 2017. In the near term, though, business is robust. Several chipmakers started to place a sizeable number of fab tool orders in the latter part of 2016, particularly in three areas—3D NAND, logic and foundry. Now, after buying the in... » read more

Highly Sensitive Focus Monitoring Technique Based On Illumination And Target Co-Optimization
By KLA - 14 Dec, 2016 - Comments: 0

By Myungjun Lee, Mark D. Smith, Pradeep Subrahmanyan, and Ady Levy. Abstract We present a cost-effective focus monitoring technique based on the illumination and the target co-optimization. An advanced immersion scanner can provide the freeform illumination that enables the use of any kind of custom source shape by using a programmable array of thousands of individually adjustable micro-mi... » read more

When Exposed To IoT, Big Iron ATE Will Rust
By NI - 14 Dec, 2016 - Comments: 0

When the first “smart” refrigerators were released in the early 2000s, consumers weren’t sure what to do with them. When Nest released the smart thermostat, though, a revolution happened. Humans were taken out of the loop because the thermostat learned on its own about desired temperature and how quickly it could cool or heat a house. And it could synchronize all of this better than a hum... » read more

More Than Just Carbon Dioxide
By Katherine Derbyshire - 14 Dec, 2016 - Comments: 0

As discussed in Part Two of this series, lifecycle analyses of greenhouse gas emissions consider both direct and indirect sources. Indirect CO2 emissions, attributed to electricity and other forms of energy purchased by the fab, are the semiconductor industry’s single largest environmental impact. Of those emissions, a large fraction are attributable to plasma-based etch and deposition steps,... » read more

SRAM Physical Verification With Calibre Pattern Matching
By Mentor, a Siemens Business - 14 Dec, 2016 - Comments: 0

Traditional SRAM verification flows can require significant resources to implement and support, and still miss critical errors that result in manufacturing defects. Using the Calibre Pattern Matching automated pattern-based solution provides accurate results, avoids costly mask re-spins, and is easily updated to add newly developed SRAM IP cells. To read more, click here. » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 13
By Mark LaPedus - 13 Dec, 2016 - Comments: 0

Phonon lasers A European consortium recently kicked off a new project that will develop a practical phonon laser. The European consortium, called PHENOMEN, will be coordinated by the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). Most chips perform functions using an electrical charge (electrons) or by light (photons). In comparison, a phonon “is a quantum of energy or a q... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 09 Dec, 2016 - Comments: 2

Chipmakers At this week’s IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco, TSMC as well as the team of GlobalFoundries, IBM and Samsung separately presented papers on 7nm finFET technology. Qualcomm has begun sampling the world’s first 10nm server processor. As the first in the Qualcomm Centriq product family, the ARM-based processor has up to 48-cores and is built ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 6
By Mark LaPedus - 06 Dec, 2016 - Comments: 1

The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) has broken an unofficial record for the world’s most powerful hybrid magnet. The 33-ton system, called the series connected hybrid (SCH) magnet, has reached its full field strength of 36 tesla. The SCH is more than 40% stronger than the previous world-record hybrid magnet. Tesla, or T, is the measurement of magnetic field strength. A ref... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 02 Dec, 2016 - Comments: 0

Manufacturing There are more changes at SEMI. SEMI has named David Anderson as president of the SEMI Americas region. Most recently, Anderson was chief executive and chairman of Novati, a specialty manufacturing fab. He replaces Karen Savala, who was president of the SEMI Americas region for six years. In an e-mail, Savala confirmed she left SEMI in October. Meanwhile, in October, SEMI an... » read more

Sustainability Saves Water, Too
By Katherine Derbyshire - 30 Nov, 2016 - Comments: 0

After energy (discussed in Part 2 of this series), water is the largest fab input and the largest contributor to fab waste. Yet tools for analyzing a fab’s water footprint are generally less mature than tools for analyzing emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. In part, this may be because water consumption is primarily a local issue, while greenhouse gas emissions are a global c... » read more

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