Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 15


Ghost imaging quantum microscopes The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has begun building a quantum-enhanced X-ray microscope based on a technology called ghost imaging. Still in R&D, quantum X-ray microscopes promise to provide higher resolution images with less damage to a sample. Using the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), researcher... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy--semiconductors Eighteen members of the European Union have launched an initiative to boost the EU’s efforts in processors and semiconductor technologies. The member nations will also work together to bolster leading-edge manufacturing capacity. The EU plans to invest up to $145 billion in the effort. “Europe has all it takes to diversify and reduce critical dependenci... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 7


Cybersecurity for manufacturing The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has launched a center to address cybersecurity issues in the U.S. manufacturing sector. The center, called the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII), is a $111 million public-private partnership. As part of the effort, UTSA will enter into a five-year corporative agreement with the U.S. Depart... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Packaging and EMS ASE is expanding its efforts in the electronic manufacturing services (EMS) business. Universal Scientific Industrial (USI), a subsidiary of ASE, has completed the acquisition of Asteelflash Group through the acquisition of its parent company, Financière. USI provides electronic design and manufacturing services. It also provides system-in-package (SiP) modules. Asteelfla... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 1


New phase-change materials The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed an open source machine learning algorithm for use in discovering and developing new materials. NIST’s technology, called CAMEO, has already been used by researchers to discover a new phase-change memory material. CAMEO, which stands for Closed-Loop Autonomous System for Materials Exploration... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Market research VLSI Research has raised its forecast for semiconductors and fab equipment in 2020. In its previous forecast, VLSI Research projected that the equipment market would reach $84.8 billion in 2020, up 10.1% over 2019. Now, in its latest forecast (See page 2), the equipment market is projected to hit $89.8 billion in 2020, up 16.6%. “The equipment business is booming,” said ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 25


Lidar-on-a-chip At the upcoming IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), Samsung will present a paper on the industry’s first single-chip lidar beam scanner. (Go to this link and then look for paper 7.2, “Single-Chip Beam Scanner with Integrated Light Source for Real-Time Light Detection and Ranging,” J. Lee et al, Samsung.) Lidar, or light imaging, detection, and ranging, ... » read more

Structural Integrity Of Chips


A new challenge is on the horizon, and it's one that could have some interesting consequences for chip design — structural integrity. Ever since the introduction of finFETs and 3D NAND, the lines have been blurring between electrical and mechanical engineering. After some initial reports of fins collapsing or breaking, and variable distances between layers, chipmakers figured out how to so... » read more

Accelerating Dry Etch Processes During Feature Dependent Etch


In dry etching, the trajectory of accelerated ions is non-uniform and non-vertical, due to collisions with gas molecules and other random thermal effects (figure 1). This has an impact on etch results, since the etch rate at any point on the wafer will vary depending on the solid angle visible to the bulk chamber and the ion flux for that angular range. These non-uniform and feature dependent e... » read more

Emerging Apps And Challenges For Packaging


Advanced packaging is playing a bigger role and becoming a more viable option to develop new system-level chip designs, but it also presents chipmakers with a confusing array of options and sometimes a hefty price tag. Automotive, servers, smartphones and other systems have embraced advanced packaging in one form or another. For other applications, it's overkill, and a simpler commodity pack... » read more

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