Amkor-TSMC deal; new law speeds semiconductor projects; NSTC launch; quartz supply; chiplet partitioning; semiconductor materials; ferroelectric devices; data center power; data routing in heterogeneous chip designs.
Amkor will provide turnkey advanced packaging and test services to TSMC in Amkor’s planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, in a deal announced on Thursday. The companies jointly specified the packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated Fan-Out (InFO) and Chip on Wafer on Substrate (CoWoS).
President Biden signed into law a bill that exempts some semiconductor projects funded by the U.S. CHIPS Act from undergoing certain environmental reviews, a move aimed at speeding up funding and production in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing,
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced a $100 million competition under CHIPS for America to develop AI-driven solutions for sustainable semiconductor materials and processes. The initiative aims to accelerate research through university-led collaborations using AI-powered autonomous experimentation, with a focus on sustainable manufacturing within five years. The funding opportunity will be released later this year.
The National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) officially opened for membership, inviting semiconductor companies, universities, research institutions, and government agencies to join in shaping the future of U.S. semiconductor R&D. Membership will offer opportunities to influence the NSTC’s agenda, with activities set to begin in 2025.
The eBeam Initiative completed its survey on the photomask market growth and investments in mask inspection and multi-beam mask writing. Respondents were upbeat about mask and equipment revenue growth, with increased confidence that by 2031 5nm will be achievable without EUV.
The widespread adoption of chiplets in domain-specific applications is creating a partitioning challenge that is much more complex than anything chip design teams have dealt with in previous designs. A new special report stresses why understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.
Alphawave Semi uncorked a silicon-proven 3nm UCIe die-to-die subsystem chiplet, built on TSMC’s Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) process, delivering 8 Tbps/mm bandwidth density and 24 Gbps D2D data rate.
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Rapidus is building a new R&D facility called Rapidus Chiplet Solutions and a new clean room in Japan.
Two of the largest quartz manufacturing facilities in North Carolina, run by Sibelco and The Quartz Corp., were closed due to damage from Hurricane Helene, with no reopening date set. TSMC, Infineon, Samsung, and SK hynix said they are monitoring the situation, but do not anticipate any disruptions.
The global semiconductor packaging materials market is projected to grow at a 5.6% compound annual growth rate through 2028. After a 15.5% decline in 2023, the market is expected to rebound, with advanced packaging, including FC-BGA substrates, projected to exceed $26 billion in 2025.
The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded $30 million to TTM Technologies to buy and install advanced manufacturing equipment and develop prototype designs for printed circuit boards, and awarded a total of $43 million to 112 university researchers under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program to buy equipment aimed at quantum computing, photonics, novel materials, and more. The DoD also issued a first Notice of Funding Availability for loans to accelerate commercialization and scale production for critical technologies, including advanced manufacturing, autonomous mobile robots, cybersecurity, microelectronics, nanomaterials and metamaterials, Open RAN, sensors, quantum, and more.
Raytheon won a three-year, two-phase contract from DARPA to develop foundational ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors based on diamond and aluminum nitride technology.
Fujifilm plans to invest about $136 million to expand its semiconductor materials business, including two new facilities in Japan for EUV photoresists and post-CMP cleaners.
The UK government acquired the country’s only gallium arsenide fab from Coherent. It will be renamed Octric Semiconductors UK.
Japan’s Resonac and France’s Soitec will jointly develop 200mm (8-inch) SiC bonded substrates.
Semiconductor Engineering published these articles and tech talks this week:
Cerebras Systems filed for an IPO, disclosing sales of $136.4M in the first six months of the year, with Abu Dhabi Group 42 Holding receiving most of that revenue.
India-based Fermionic Design raised about $6 million. Its products include analog, mixed-signal, and edge RF chips for the Indian defense and space establishments.
Sivers Semiconductors received CHIPS Act funding to advance FR3 beamformer ICs and array design for 5G/6G.
Jabil acquired Mikros Technologies, provider of liquid cooling solutions for thermal management.
OpenAI, now valued at $157 billion, raised $6.6 billion in new funding for AI research, increased compute capacity, and new tools.
DataPelago launched from stealth with $47 million in funding, unveiling a universal data processing engine for GenAI and analytics workloads.
The state of New York was awarded $9.4 million, along with $1.5 million from Empire State Development, to help small businesses upstate enter and grow semiconductor and microelectronics businesses.
IDC predicts AI data center energy consumption will grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 45% by 2027, primarily driven by AI workloads. Alongside of that came a flurry of sustainability-related developments:
Globally:
NVIDIA released open-source frontier-class multi-modal LLMs.
SEMI‘s Semiconductor Manufacturing Cybersecurity Consortium partnered with NIST to develop a semiconductor manufacturing industry profile for NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, which will serve as the foundation for a strategic roadmap for cybersecurity implementation throughout the industry. NIST plans to publish the profile in mid-2025.
To boost national security and promote export control compliance, the U.S. Department of Commerce expanded its Validated End User Program to include eligible data centers, building on efforts to safeguard AI systems and chips.
TXOne Networks expanded its edge series of networking security appliances for enhanced network resilience and adaptability.
Recent security research:
The Australian Cyber Security Centre, CISA and partners released a guide, “Principles of Operational Technology Cybersecurity.” And CISA issued a number of alerts/advisories.
The NSF and Department of Commerce announced a $30 million funding opportunity to establish the Network Coordination Hub for the National Network for Microelectronics Education. The Hub will manage a national strategy to train workers for the semiconductor industry, offering curricula, experiential opportunities, and teacher development. Proposals are due by Oct. 28, with NSF hosting an informational webinar on Oct. 4.
The NSF awarded NY CREATES $4.7 million to help launch a semiconductor workforce development program, Education Alliance for Semiconductor Experiential Learning.
Virginia Tech upgraded its Micro/Nanofabrication Cleanroom and Laboratory, thanks to a $3 million gift-in-kind of semiconductor processing and manufacturing equipment from alum and SPTS Technologies’ former CEO, Kevin Crofton.
Argonne National Laboratory and University of Chicago researchers proposed a new type of optical memory, in which optical data is transferred from a rare earth element embedded within a solid material to a nearby quantum defect.
KAIST researchers developed a stretchable display that can expand 25% while remaining clear without distortion, and it can stretch and contract up to 5,000 times at 15% expansion without performance degradation, achieving a negative Poisson’s ratio, which illustrates where horizontal stretching leads to vertical contraction.
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Quantum Systems Accelerator (QSA) director Bert de Jong discusses progress towards more efficient scalable quantum computers.
Fig. 1: Graduate student Ben Saarel adjusts the settings on a vacuum apparatus used to make trapped ion qubits on the UC Berkeley campus. (Credit: Thor Swift/Berkeley Lab)
University of New South Wales quantum engineers demonstrated quantum entanglement of two electrons, each bound to a different atom of phosphorus, placed inside a silicon quantum computer chip.
Siemens Digital Industries Software released its new Capital X software as a service , a cloud-enabled suite for engineering of electrical/electronic systems. Also, GlobalFoundries certified Siemens’ Analog FastSPICE platform for GF’s 22FDX, 22FDX+,12LP, and 12LP+ Process Design Kits.
Infineon introduced an industry-first 20 Gbps universal USB peripheral controller, enabling high performance in AI, image processing, and emerging applications, and offering high-speed connectivity with USB 20 Gbps and LVDS interfaces with 6X more bandwidth than its predecessor.
Keysight broadened its signal generator portfolio with two new analog signal generators, an RF analog signal generator and a microwave analog signal generator, providing portable and compact tools for component and device characterization at frequencies up to 26 GHz.
BrainChip released a low power acceleration co-processor for compact, ultra-low power, portable and intelligent devices for wearable and sensor integrated AI.
Mercury Systems inked a deal with Boeing to provide FPGA processors that will provide edge computing power for a refueling system for the U.S. Air Force.
Faraday Technology is expanding its use of Ansys’ RaptorX on-chip electromagnetic modeling solution to enhance the development of advanced packaging designs for 2.5D/3D-ICs.
Fig. 2: Ansys’ HFSS-IC, including RaptorX and Q3D.
LG Chem developed a temperature-responsive material to suppress thermal runaway in batteries, preventing EV fires.
Japanese companies Denso and Rohm are considering a strategic partnership in the semiconductor field, building on their collaborative work in automotive applications.
Toyota will invest an additional $500 million to support the certification and commercial production of Joby’s electric air taxi, aiming to achieve the companies’ shared goal of air mobility.
Georgia Tech won first place in the undergraduate category at a competition sponsored by DEVCOM Army Research Lab, tasked with designing a modular multi-mission vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that could navigate the deck of a ship in high winds and perform disaster relief tasks.
The US$21 billion RF front-end industry is responding to growth in the automotive market, after an initial drive by mobile and infrastructure.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a consent order with Cruise, addressing several incomplete reports of crashes involving automated driving systems.
Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:
| Event | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 IEEE Electronic Design Process Symposium (EDPS) | Oct 3 – 4 | SEMI facilities in Milpitas, CA |
| 2024 OCP Global Summit | Oct 15 – 17 | San Jose, CA |
| DVCON Europe | Oct 15 – 16 | Munich, Germany |
| OktoberTech: Infineon’s Technology Collaboration Forum | Oct 17 | Silicon Valley |
| Packaging Chips with CHIPS: West Coast Summit | Oct 17 | Scottsdale, Arizona |
| Hardwear.io Conference & Training | Oct 21 – 25 | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| CadenceCONNECT: Jasper User Group | Oct 22 – 23 | San Jose, CA |
| NSTC Symposium and Microelectronics Commons Annual Meeting | Oct 28 – 30 | Washington, D.C. |
| IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO 2024) | Nov 2 – 6 | Austin, Texas |
| Workshop on Hardware and Architectural Support for Security and Privacy (HASP) 2024 | Nov 2 | Austin, Texas |
| International Test Conference | Nov 3 – 8 | San Diego, CA |
| Phil Kaufman Award Ceremony and Banquet | Nov 6 | San Jose, CA |
| WISH | Women in Semiconductor Hardware | Nov 7 | San Jose, CA |
| IEEE PAINE Conference: Physical Assurance and Inspection of Electronics | Nov 12 – 14 | Huntsville, AL |
| SEMICON Europa | Nov 12 – 15 | Munich |
| Advanced Packaging Conference (APC) | Nov 13 | Munich |
| Infineon’s GaN Roadshow | Nov 19 | San Jose, CA |
| Ansys IDEAS User Conference India 2024 | Nov 20 | Bengaluru, India |
| 2024 SIA Awards Dinner | Nov 21 | San Jose, CA |
| Find All Upcoming Events Here | ||
Upcoming webinars are here.
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