E-beam’s Role Grows For Detecting IC Defects


The perpetual march toward smaller features, coupled with growing demand for better reliability over longer chip lifetimes, has elevated inspection from a relatively obscure but necessary technology into one of the most critical tools in fab and packaging houses. For years, inspection had been framed as a battle between e-beam and optical microscopy. Increasingly, though, other types of insp... » read more

Leverage Functional Interfaces For High-Speed Test Access During All Phases Of The Silicon Lifecycle


Chip testing used to be straightforward. The development team used fault simulation to select a subset of the functional tests that could detect most possible manufacturing faults. These were translated to test patterns that ran on automated test equipment (ATE) to screen out defective dies at wafer test and bad packaged chips in final test. Lots of new technology was introduced over time, incl... » read more

Elevating Production Testing With Deep Data Analytics And ACS At The Edge And Cloud


The level of system integration continues to increase at a rate of greater than 30% per year — fueled by the industry’s desire for increased capability, advanced process nodes, and "more than Moore" packaging techniques. Co-optimization of the hardware and software have also been required not only at the design stage, but at test and in the field. This white paper will present how to ele... » read more

Chip Data Joins The Party


Perhaps you’ve heard of silicon lifecycle management (product lifecycle management for your semiconductor) but considered it a “far-future” practice that you can safely ignore for now. While many pieces of a complete silicon lifecycle solutions (SLS) are not yet in place, the components are coming together every day. Today, in fact, Siemens’ Tessent offers a new suite of software ser... » read more

Are Tiny MicroLEDs The Next Big Thing For Displays?


One of the latest emerging trends is a renewed focus on microLED technology. What is a microLED, and why is the industry focusing on this technology? As the name suggests, a microLED, or µLED, is a light-emitting diode (LED) – roughly 100 times smaller than conventional LEDs. MicroLEDs can be arranged into arrays to make high-resolution displays for applications ranging from smartwatches... » read more

Keeping IC Packages Cool


Placing multiple chips into a package side-by-side can alleviate thermal issues, but as companies dive further into die stacking and denser packaging to boost performance and reduce power, they are wrestling with a whole new set of heat-related issues. The shift to advanced packaging enables chipmakers to meet demands for increasing bandwidth, clock speeds, and power density for high perform... » read more

Removing Barriers For End-To-End Analytics


Parties are coming together, generating guidelines for sharing data from IC design and manufacturing through end of life, setting the stage for true end-to-end analytics. While the promise of big data analytics is well understood, data sharing through the semiconductor supply chain has been stymied by an inability to link together data sources throughout the lifecycle of a chip, package, or ... » read more

Center Stage: The Time For Hybrid Bonding Has Arrived


When the subject of hybrid bonding is brought up in the industry, the focus is often on how this technique is used to manufacture CMOS image sensors (CIS), an essential device for today’s digital cameras, particularly those found in smartphones. As such, CIS is a common touchpoint given the ubiquity of mobile phones, whether you hold a product from Apple, Samsung, or Huawei in your hands. ... » read more

The Race To Zero Defects In Auto ICs


Assembly houses are fine-tuning their methodologies and processes for automotive ICs, optimizing everything from inspection and metrology to data management in order to prevent escapes and reduce the number of costly returns. Today, assembly defects account for between 12% and 15% of semiconductor customer returns in the automotive chip market. As component counts in vehicles climb from the ... » read more

Enabling SoC Visibility For Future Secure Hardware Architectures With In-Chip Environmental Monitoring


Billions of people around the world are now online and generating vast amounts of data every day. This data revolution, which is largely driven by user performance requirements, is a double-edged sword. On one hand it is enabling huge technology advancements, revolutionizing the way we connect with each other and the world around us, but on the other hand it is exposing major vulnerabilities in... » read more

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