Special Report

Re-Engineering The FinFET
Shapes, sizes, pitches, materials and manufacturing processes all are being revamped in preparation for the next-generation of transistors.

Top Stories

Transistor Options Narrow For 7nm
The frontrunner is sill a silicon-based finFET, but there are lots of other options on the table.

Counting And Controlling DSA Defects
It’s not clear yet whether high defect rates are an obstacle or relatively normal for a new process technology.

RF SOI Foundry Biz Heats Up
Market will boom for a few large players as IoT ramps, but which ones will survive?

Executive Insight: Elmar Platzgummer
IMS Nanofabrication’s top exec sounds off on multi-beam e-beam, the limitations of EUV and direct-write, and when all of this technology will kick in and why.

Blogs

Editor In Chief Ed Sperling observes that as the cost of design increases at the most advanced nodes, the likelihood is that no one size—or process—will fit all, in Future Directions Unknown.

Executive Editor Mark LaPedus questions whether Moore’s Law is slowing and why, in Will Materials Derail Moore’s Law?

Mentor Graphics’ Jeff Wilson finds that at 28nm and below the rules for fill changed forever, in Fill Database Management Strategies At Advanced Nodes.

D2S’s Aki Fujimura argues that as line/space measurements fall below 50nm, shape-based mask-data preparation and mask verification are no longer sufficient, in We have Reached The Tipping Point For Simulation-Based Mask Data Preparation.

SEMI’s Paula Doe writes that the Industrial IoT is saving companies millions of dollars a year and providing the impetus for infrastructure development, in IoT Sees Real Adoption In Industry, Driving Development Of Ecosystem.

Semico Research’s Seth Itow provides a glimpse into the other side of the 3D printer market—the hobbyist community—and what’s holding it back, in Semiconductors Are Key To Better 3D Printing.

Sponsor White Paper

Divide And Conquer: Hierarchical DFT For SoC Designs
A look at the key tasks required for hierarchical DFT and how they fit into the overall flow.