Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers AMD and Xilinx have entered into a definitive agreement for AMD to acquire Xilinx in an all-stock transaction valued at $35 billion. With the proposed deal, AMD will enter the FPGA business, putting it further in competition with Intel. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the AMD and Xilinx boards. The transaction is expected to close by the end of calendar year 2021. U... » read more

What’s Ahead For Chips & Equipment?


It’s been a topsy-turvy year in the semiconductor industry. 2020 was supposed to be a strong year. Then, the coronavirus outbreak hit. Countries implemented various measures to mitigate the outbreak, such as stay-at-home orders and store closures. Economic turmoil and job losses soon followed. Earlier in the year, the chip market looked bleak. Now, business appears to be strong. To gain... » read more

Defect Challenges Grow For IC Packaging


Several vendors are ramping up new inspection equipment based on infrared, optical, and X-ray technologies in an effort to reduce defects in current and future IC packages. While all of these technologies are necessary, they also are complementary. No one tool can meet all defect inspection requirements. As a result, packaging vendors may need to buy more and different tools. For years, p... » read more

Power Packaging Trends And The 48V Ecosystem


With each passing year, emerging growth application areas such as automotive, cloud computing, industrial automation, and telecom (5G) infrastructure are garnering more attention. Although the application segments are different, there is a commonality in how voltage conversion and power distribution are achieved at the system level. System demands are becoming more important to reduce an effe... » read more

Winning The Global Race For Semiconductor Technology With Virtual Fabrication


Semiconductor process development is no easy task, with each generation of devices more difficult and expensive to create. Traditional cycles of build-and-test development are becoming obsolete, since they are too expensive and time-consuming for the most advanced processes. The high cost of process development Most chip designers developing new products rely on existing manufacturing process... » read more

Much Smarter Manufacturing


Smart manufacturing is undergoing some fundamental changes as more sensors are integrated across fabs to generate more usable data, and as AI/ML systems are deployed to sift through that data and identify patterns and anomalies more quickly. The concept of smart manufacturing — also referred to as Industrie 4.0 in Europe, for the fourth industrial revolution — emerged from the World Econ... » read more

Mask/Lithography Issues For Mature Nodes


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss lithography and photomask issues with Bryan Kasprowicz, director of technology and strategy and a distinguished member of the technical staff at Photronics; Harry Levinson, principal at HJL Lithography; Noriaki Nakayamada, senior technologist at NuFlare; and Aki Fujimura, chief executive of D2S. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. ... » read more

Packaging Demands For RF And Microwave


RF and microwave integrated circuits (ICs), monolithic microwave ICs (MMICs) and systems in package (SiPs) are vital for a wide range of applications. These include mobile phones, wireless local-area networks (WLANs), ultra-wideband (UWB), internet-of-things (IoT), GPS and Bluetooth devices. Moreover, RF-optimized packaging products and processes are essential to enabling the 5G ramp-up. RFI... » read more

Smart Backend Assembly Factory For Industry 4.0


I recently spoke with Chan Pin CHONG, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Products and Solutions at Kulicke & Soffa, about how smart manufacturing is driving new production efficiencies in the semiconductor industry. During our conversation, he also provided practical steps for factory operators to follow in evaluating their smart manufacturing needs in order to ensure successfu... » read more

Side Wettable Flanks For Leadless Automotive Packaging


The MicroLeadFrame (MLF)/Quad Flat No-Lead (QFN) packaging solution is extremely popular in the semiconductor industry. It is used in applications ranging from consumer electronics and communications to those requiring high reliability performance, such as the automotive industry. The wide acceptance of this packaging design is primarily due to its flexible form factors, size, scalability and t... » read more

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