Stacked Die, Phase Two


The initial hype phase of [getkc id="82" kc_name="2.5D"] appears to be over. There are multiple offerings in development or on the market already from Xilinx, Altera, Cisco, Huawei, IBM, AMD, all focused on better throughput over shorter distances with better yield and lower power. Even Intel has jumped on the bandwagon, saying that 2.5D will be essential for extending [getkc id="74" comment="M... » read more

Making It Differently


Anyone who hasn't bought into the IoT/E as a fundamental shift in electronics should check out what's happening in China. All appliances and electronics being developed for the home market are now being sold as smart-ready. This is a market that comprises roughly one-fifth (19.4% to be exact) of the world's population. In the future, whether or not you hook up a new washing machine or TV to ... » read more

Partition Lines Growing Fuzzy


For as long as most semiconductor engineers can remember, chips with discrete functions started out on a printed circuit board, progressed into chip sets when it made sense and eventually were integrated onto the same die. The primary motivations behind this trend were performance and cost—shorter distance, fewer mask layers, less silicon. But this equation has been changing over the past ... » read more

One-On-One: Dave Hemker


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss process technology, transistor trends and other topics with Dave Hemker, senior vice president and chief technology officer at [getentity id="22820" comment="LAM Research"]. SE: On the technology front, the IC industry is undergoing some new and dramatic changes. What are some of those changes? Hemker: We focus on what we call the inflections.... » read more

Back To The Future


The push to the next process node typically has meant that designs get simpler at existing and older nodes because the process technology is more mature and there have been so many chips developed at those nodes—many billions of them—that every possible corner case has been encountered hundreds, if not thousands, of times. That all makes sense in theory, but several key things have chang... » read more

Bigger Systems, Bigger Profits


Markets work in very mysterious ways. Technology that should be a slam dunk—think 2.5D with its promise of re-usable analog IP and faster performance, for example—are still hobbling along because no one wants to deal with the risk of a new architectural and manufacturing approach. They haven't even shown up yet in servers, where price is almost irrelevant. At the same time (no pun intended)... » read more

Manufacturing And Packaging Changes For 2015


This year more than 26 people provided predictions for 2015. Most of these came from the EDA industry, so the results may be rather biased. However, ecosystems are coming closer together in many parts of the semiconductor food chain, meaning that the EDA companies often can see what is happening in dependent industries and in the system design houses. Thus their predictions may have already res... » read more

One-On-One: Aaron Thean


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss process technology, transistor trends and other topics with Aaron Thean, vice president of process technologies and director of the logic devices R&D program at Imec. SE: Chipmakers are ramping up the 16nm/14nm logic node, with 10nm and 7nm in R&D. What’s the current timeline for 10nm and 7nm? Thean: 10nm is on its way. We will see r... » read more

Fab Tool R&D And Ramen Noodles


The semiconductor equipment and materials industry has always been a tough business. Over the years, vendors have been under pressure to develop new technologies for a shrinking but demanding customer base. And as a result, many vendors could not keep up, or elected to exit the business, causing a massive shakeout in the industry. It isn’t getting any easier, though. Today, tool and... » read more

Designing For Security


Stacked die may improve performance and lower power, but the use of [getkc id="203" kc_name="through-silicon vias"] (TSVs) could add new security risks. As IC structures go, the vertical component of these chip packages is both a boon and a bust. Three-dimensional geometries allow for much less complexity in design by stacking two-dimensional dies and interconnecting them in the third dimens... » read more

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