3D In-Memory Compute Making Progress


Indium compounds are showing great promise for 3D in-memory compute and RF integration, but more work is needed. Researchers continue to make headway into 3D device integration particularly with indium tin oxide (ITO), which is widely used in display manufacturing. Recent work indicates that different compounds of indium oxide doped with tin, gallium, or zinc combinations may boost transisto... » read more

Chiplets: Deep Dive Into Designing, Manufacturing, And Testing


Chiplets are a disruptive technology. They change the way chips are designed, manufactured, tested, packaged, as well as the underlying business relationships and fundamentals. But they also open the door to vast new opportunities for existing chipmakers and startups to create highly customized components and systems for specific use cases and market segments. This LEGO-like approach sounds ... » read more

Battling Over Shrinking Physical Margin In Chips


Smaller process nodes, coupled with a continual quest to add more features into designs, are forcing chipmakers and systems companies to choose which design and manufacturing groups have access to a shrinking pool of technology margin. In the past margin largely was split between the foundries, which imposed highly restrictive design rules (RDRs) to compensate for uncertainties in new proces... » read more

High-NA Lithography Starting To Take Shape


The future of semiconductor technology is often viewed through the lenses of photolithography equipment, which continues to offer better resolution for future process nodes despite an almost perpetual barrage of highly challenging technological issues. For years, lithography was viewed as the primary manufacturing-related gating factor to continued device scaling, beset by multiple delays th... » read more

Using ML For Improved Fab Scheduling


Expanding fab capacity is slow and expensive even under ideal circumstances. It has been still more difficult in recent years, as pandemic-related shortages have strained equipment supply chains. When integrated circuit demand rises faster than expansions can fill the gap, fabs try to find “hidden” capacity through improved operations. They hope that more efficient workflows will allow e... » read more

Goals of Going Green


The chip industry is stepping up efforts to be seen as environmentally friendly, driven by growing pressure from customers and government regulations. Some manufacturers have been addressing sustainability challenges for more than a decade, but they are becoming more aggressive in their efforts, while others are joining them. A review of sustainability reports across the semiconductor indust... » read more

Balancing AI And Engineering Expertise In The Fab


Modeling and simulation are playing increasingly critical roles in chip development due to tighter process specs, shrinking process windows, and fierce competition to bring technologies to market first. Before a new device makes it to high-volume manufacturing, there are countless engineering hours spent on developing the lithography, etching, deposition, CMP, and many other processes, at hi... » read more

Preparing For 5G Millimeter Wave And 6G


Cellular technology is about to take a giant leap forward, but the packaging, assembly, and testing of the chips used in 5G millimeter wave and the forthcoming 6G ecosystem will be significantly more complicated than anything used in the past. So far, most 5G devices are still working at sub-6 GHz frequencies. A massive rollout of mmWave technology over the next few years will significantly ... » read more

193i Lithography Takes Center Stage…Again


Cutting-edge lithography to create smaller features increasingly is being supplemented by improvements in lithography for mature process nodes, both of which are required as SoCs and complex chips are decomposed and integrated into advanced packages. Until the 7nm era, the primary goal of leading-edge chipmakers was to pack everything onto a single system-on-chip (SoC) using the same process... » read more

Smart Manufacturing Makes Gains In Chip Industry


Lights out manufacturing is gaining steam across the semiconductor industry, accelerating productivity, improving quality, and reducing costs and environment impact. These benefits are the result of years of strategic investments in technologies like machine-to-machine communication, data analytics, and robotics to achieve higher levels of autonomy. Semiconductor factories have long depen... » read more

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