Automotive IC Shortage Drags On


The current automotive semiconductor shortages won’t end anytime soon. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, it wreaked havoc on the worldwide supply chain, but it especially caught automakers flat-footed. When the auto OEMs canceled chip orders during a roughly eight-week period of plant shutdowns, they later found their supplies of critical ICs had evaporated. To make it an ev... » read more

Rethinking Business As Usual


Few things can snap your priorities into focus like the onset of a pandemic. Our industry is known for its cyclical nature, so adapting to change is not a new concept. But dealing with the challenges posed by COVID-19 has been like nothing any of us have experienced before. QP Technologies has been fortunate to weather the pandemic well – less than 0.05% of our staff has tested positive, w... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 18


Mystery of MXenes Aalto University has studied the surface composition and provided some new insights into MXenes, a promising set of materials used for energy storage and related applications. A class of two-dimensional inorganic compounds, MXenes consist of thin atomic layers. The materials are based on transition metal carbides, nitrides or carbonitrides. These materials have extraord... » read more

Is The Photomask Ecosystem Ready For Curvilinear ILT?


The time it takes to write a photomask with curvilinear shapes was a major historical barrier to adoption inverse lithography technology (ILT), as discussed in the second installment of our blog series on curvilinear mask shapes. After years of development, multi-beam mask writers came into production and one of their features is the ability to write curvilinear masks without a write time penal... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy Semiconductor companies as well hardware and software vendors have announced the formation of the Semiconductors in America Coalition (SIAC). The group called on congressional leaders to appropriate $50 billion for U.S. manufacturing incentives and research initiatives. SIAC’s mission is to advance federal policies that promote semiconductor manufacturing and research in th... » read more

What’s Next In Fab Tool Technologies?


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and other next-generation fab technologies with Jerry Chen, head of global business development for manufacturing & industrials at Nvidia; David Fried, vice president of computational products at Lam Research; Mark Shirey, vice president of marketing and applications at KLA; and Aki Fuj... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 10


Synaptic transistors The University of Hong Kong and Northwestern University have developed an organic electrochemical synaptic transistor, a technology that could one day process and store information like the human brain. Researchers have demonstrated that the transistor can mimic the synapses in the human brain. It can build on memories to learn over time, according to researchers. Th... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs IBM has unveiled what the company says is the world’s first 2nm chip. The device is based on a next-generation transistor architecture called a nanosheet FET. The nanosheet FET is an evolutionary step from finFETs, which is today’s state-of-the-art transistor technology. Targeted for 2024, IBM’s 2nm chip features a novel multi-Vt scheme, a 12nm gate length, and a n... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 4


Measuring Moon dust The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and others have developed a new way to study and measure moon dust. Using an X-ray nano computed tomography (XCT) technique, researchers measured the 3D shapes of lunar particles as small as 400nm in length. The goal is to find out how these shapes impact the optical scattering characteristics of lunar dust on the... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs Intel wants $9.7 billion in subsidies for use in building a leading-edge fab in Europe, according to a report from Reuters. As reported, in March, Intel re-entered the foundry business, positioning itself against Samsung and TSMC at the leading edge, and against a multitude of foundries working at older nodes. Eighteen members of the European Union recently launched an ... » read more

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