Ion Implanter Market Heats Up


The ion implanter market has been a stable, if not a sleepy, business. The last big event took place in 2011, when Applied Materials re-entered the ion implanter market by acquiring Varian, the world’s leading supplier of these tools. The acquisition gave Applied Materials a commanding 80% share of the implanter business, with the other players fighting for the crumbs. But after year... » read more

More Problems Ahead


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss future scaling problems with Lars Liebmann, a fellow at IBM; Adam Brand, managing director of transistor technology at Applied Materials; Karim Arabi, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm; and Srinivas Banna, a fellow for advanced technology architecture at GlobalFoundries. SE: We’re starting to hear talk about octuple patterning. We’ve ... » read more

What’s Next For Memory?


Apple, Samsung and others are developing the next wave of smartphones and tablets. OEMs want to integrate new memory schemes that provide more bandwidth at lower power. But there are some challenges in the arena that are prompting memory makers to rethink their mobile DRAM roadmaps. The conventional wisdom was that memory makers would ship mobile DRAMs based on the new LPDDR4 interface stand... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 6


Mentor’s Colin Walls takes a look at bad behavior—the undefined kind that you get from doing C programming wrong and adding too much complexity up front. Cadence’s Brian Fuller interviews his colleague about what engineers need to know in regards to finFETs, advanced nodes and parasitic extraction. Short answer: Plenty. Synopsys’ Mick Posner is building FPGA prototype boards and... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Fujitsu Semiconductor and Panasonic’s chip unit announced that the parties have signed a definitive agreement to merge and establish a new fabless IC company. Panasonic isn’t exactly fabless--yet. Recently, Panasonic took its fabs and formed a fab venture with TowerJazz. Meanwhile, as part of the move, Fujitsu and Fujitsu Semiconductor have decided to expand the scope of its foundry op... » read more

Next-Generation Sustainability Gets More Challenging


The semiconductor industry has made major progress on reducing energy usage and water consumption, and effectively abating its emissions, as companies made sustainability a core requirement in their design of new processes and tools. But it’s about to get considerably harder. That means more opportunities to add value with innovative technologies, and also more need for collaboration. Next... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Here’s a sad commentary on the state of Japan’s electronics industry: Some Japanese electronics giants are converting unused factories and fabs into agricultural growing facilities, according to The Wall Street Journal. Last month, for example, Fujitsu began selling lettuce from the Aizu-Wakamatsu plant. It's officially over. IBM's talks to sell its chip unit to GlobalFoundries have offi... » read more

Blog Review: July 23


Mentor’s John Day says that within the decade you will be able to contact a real person from your car. Hopefully that doesn't mean marketing people will be able to contact you while you’re stuck in traffic. Cadence’s Brian Fuller says the future of EDA in the automotive market isn’t just about chips. Think security, software and cost reduction. It’s not just SoCs that are going ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


IBM’s move to sell its chip business to GlobalFoundries may have stalled or is dead, according to the Albany Times Union and other news outlets. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state will partner with over 100 private companies, led by GE, to launch the New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium. GE will be a lead partner in a fab, housed at the CNSE Nano Tech co... » read more

Has 3D NAND Fallen Flat?


Today’s planar NAND technology will hit the wall at 10nm, prompting the need for the next big thing in flash memory—3D NAND. In fact, 3D NAND may extend NAND flash memory for the next several years and enable new applications. And it will also drive a new wave of fabs and tool orders. But the transition won’t be as smooth as previous rollouts. 3D NAND is harder to manufacture than pr... » read more

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