How Overlay Keeps Pace With EUV Patterning


Overlay metrology tools improve accuracy while delivering acceptable throughput, addressing competing requirements in increasingly complex devices. In a race that never ends, on-product overlay tolerances for leading-edge devices are shrinking rapidly. They are in the single-digit nanometer range for the 3nm generation (22nm metal pitch) devices. New overlay targets, machine learning, and im... » read more

Sky High: More Thoughts To Consider Before Transitioning To The Cloud


In our previous blog, I talked about the essential factors that a company must consider in leveraging cloud resources to accelerate their goals. The objective here is not just about putting some of the workload in the cloud; rather, it is about realizing the transformation adopting cloud technologies will bring about. In particular, it is more important to think of the cloud not only as a set o... » read more

Nanosheet FETs Drive Changes In Metrology And Inspection


In the Moore’s Law world, it has become a truism that smaller nodes lead to larger problems. As fabs turn to nanosheet transistors, it is becoming increasingly challenging to detect line-edge roughness and other defects due to the depths and opacities of these and other multi-layered structures. As a result, metrology is taking even more of a hybrid approach, with some well-known tools moving... » read more

Are You Leaving Performance On The Table? Here Is One Sure Way To Find Out


Compute platforms are always hungry for more performance. This is a fact that we simply cannot escape. Whether you are targeting high performance computing, IoT, mobile, or the automotive market, you need to unlock the best performance for your specific workloads. This relentless quest for performance comes with an unwelcome side effect: system complexity. As hardware becomes more capable, the ... » read more

Making The Most Of Data Lakes


Having all the semiconductor data available is increasingly necessary for improving manufacturability, yield, and ultimately the reliability of end devices. But without sufficient knowledge of relationships between data from different processes and computationally efficient data structures, the value of any data is significantly reduced. In the semiconductor industry, reducing waste, decreas... » read more

The Great Migration To 5G Is Underway


Every decade brings with it a plethora of technology changes, and the cumulative effects of 50+ years of changes in wireless technologies are noteworthy for how they have changed the way we communicate. The 80’s began the era of personal computing along with 1G rollout The 90’s saw the advent of 64-bit microprocessor architecture in consumer devices coinciding with 2G rollout The... » read more

The Human Hand: Curating Good Data And Creating An Effective Deep-Learning R2R Strategy For High-Volume Manufacturing


Currently, the semiconductor manufacturing industry uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to take data and autonomously learn from that data. With the additional data, AI and ML can be used to quickly discover patterns and determine correlations in various applications, most notably those applications involving metrology and inspection, whether in the front-end of the manufacturing ... » read more

GaN 8Gbps High-Speed Relay MMIC For Automated Test Equipment


An 8 Gbps high-speed relay MMIC for an Automated Test Equipment (ATE) using a gallium nitride is developed and evaluated. Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor structure with a tantalum oxynitride is employed to reduce a leakage current for ATE applications. The fabricated MMIC shows 0.3 nA of the leakage current, 12 GHz of a -3 dB bandwidth, and excellent eye-opening of 8 Gbps signals with a 18-lead... » read more

Advantages Of Measuring Surface Roughness With White Light Interferometry


The concept of measuring surface roughness originated nearly a century ago as a means to prevent uncertainty and disputes between manufacturers and buyers. Now, it has become a common identifier used throughout industry for validating manufacturing processes, confirming adherence to both internal and regulatory specifications, and guaranteeing quality and performance of end products. Subjective... » read more

Synopsys And Cerebras Systems


The Cerebras Systems Wafer-Scale Engine 2 (WSE-2) is by far the largest silicon product available, with a total silicon area of 46,225mm². It utilizes the maximum square of silicon that can be made out of a 300mm diameter wafer. The square of silicon contains 84 die that are 550mm² each. These die were stitched together using proprietary layers of interconnect, making a continuous compute fab... » read more

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