Signoff Of Synthesis-Optimized Registers


How do you know when you sign off on a complex chip design that everything is going to work? There are more variables, more elements that need to be verified, and more waivers that need to be generated. Suresh Barla, senior director of field applications at Synopsys, talks about how to ensure that RTL is fully optimized for PPA targets in large designs that can include hundreds of millions of g... » read more

Moving Defect Detection And Classification To The Edge


The number of defects detected through inspection is exploding at each new process node. There are now millions of defects being identified on each wafer, but only a fraction of those can cause problems. Prasad Bachiraju, senior director of business development at Onto Innovation, talks about the different types of images being captured using different illumination modes at different touch poin... » read more

Challenges In Scaling Chips To 2nm And Below


Key Takeaways Scaling to 2nm and below continues due to power improvements per watt, but progress is much more challenging and costly. Solutions to problems often create other problems due to less margin for tradeoffs, often requiring larger interposers, more chiplets, and more complex packages. New levels of precision are required throughout the design-through-manufacturing flow, re... » read more

Extraction Challenges of CFET and Backside Power Delivery


The integration of complementary field-effect transistors (CFETs) and buried power rails (BPRs) is central to advancing semiconductor scaling for nodes at 3nm and below. CFETs achieve unprecedented device density by vertically stacking n-type and p-type transistors, while BPRs embed the power network within the silicon substrate to boost efficiency and minimize area usage. These advances drive ... » read more

Carrier Mapping in Sub-2nm Node NSFETs with SSRM (imec, KU Leuven)


Researchers from imec and KU Leuven published "Carrier Mapping in Sub-2nm Node Nanosheet Transistors with Scanning Spreading Resistance Microscopy." Abstract "As the semiconductor industry transitions to gate-all-around architectures such as Nanosheet-FETs (NSFETs) for the 2nm node and beyond, controlling parasitic resistance through precise junction engineering is fundamental. This requi... » read more

Power Leadership At 2nm: Foundation IP Optimized For Next-Gen Hyperscale SoCs


By Andrew Appleby and Daryl Seitzer As demand for data center compute accelerates, power efficiency has become the defining metric for modern CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators. Every watt saved directly impacts the massive operating costs of gigawatt-scale AI data centers, where power and cooling account for 40–60% of operational expenditures. To reduce energy consumption and strengthen t... » read more

Why Move To 2nm?


Key Takeaways: Scaling digital logic still provides significant benefits, especially lower power. Multi-die assemblies will be the predominant approach, and most of the circuitry will not be 2nm or below. While these systems are inherently more flexible, the number and complexity of tradeoffs required for optimizing PPA/C are increasing. The rollout of 2nm process nodes and ... » read more

Manufacturing At The Limits


Hybrid bonding has been in production for several years, with mature flows capable of delivering robust yields using 10µm interconnects. At that scale, processes can tolerate hundreds of nanometers of overlay variation, modest differences in wafer bow, and particle sizes rivaling the interconnect height without catastrophic impact. Hybrid bonding is compatible with optical metrology, existing ... » read more

AI Pushes High-End Mobile From SoCs To Multi-Die


Advanced packaging is becoming a key differentiator for the high end of the mobile phone market, enabling higher performance, more flexibility, and faster time to market than systems on chip. Monolithic SoCs likely will remain the technology of choice for low-end and midrange mobile devices because of their form factor, proven record, and lower cost. But multi-die assemblies provide more fle... » read more

Why Thin Film Measurements Matter


Semiconductor devices are becoming thinner and more complex, making thin deposited films even harder to measure and control. With 3nm node devices in production and 2nm nodes ramping toward first-silicon, the importance of precise film measurement is only growing in significance as fabs seek to maintain the performance and reliability of leading-edge devices. Whether it’s the read and writ... » read more

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