3D Memory Structures: Common Hole And Tilt Metrology Techniques and Capabilities


A technical paper titled "Inline metrology of high aspect ratio hole tilt and center line shift using small-angle x-ray scattering" was published by researchers at Bruker Nano and Lam Research. Abstract: "High aspect ratio (HAR) structures found in three-dimensional nand memory structures have unique process control challenges. The etch used to fabricate channel holes several microns deep... » read more

Challenges In Stacking, Shrinking And Inspecting Next-Gen Chips


Rick Gottscho, CTO of Lam Research, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss memory and equipment scaling, new market demands, and changes in manufacturing being driven by cost, new technologies, and the application of machine learning. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: We have a lot of different memory technologies coming to market. What's the impact of that? ... » read more

(R)evolution of the 56th Design Automation Conference Technical Program


The Design Automation Conference (DAC), which was founded in 1964, is the longest running and largest conference focused on the design and automation of electronic circuits and systems. And 2019 was a record year in terms of research paper submissions and accepted papers. In fact, this year DAC experienced an impressive 18 percent increase in submissions, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: DA... » read more

New Options For Power


Chipmakers have been talking for years about the next big breakthrough in battery technology, low-power architectures and energy harvesting. So far, none of them has made their job any easier. Batteries empty out too quickly, and the technology for improving the amount of energy that can be stored don't improve fast enough—or safely enough when they do show big improvements—to make a big... » read more

Memory Directions Uncertain


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with a panel of experts to find out what is happening in world of memories. Taking part in the discussion are [getperson id="11073" comment="Charlie Cheng"], chief executive officer at [getentity id="22135" e_name="Kilopass Technology"]; Navraj Nandra, senior director of marketing for Analog/Mixed signal IP, embedded memories and logic libraries at [getentity ... » read more

Blog Review: April 9


Mentor’s Colin Walls discovered an interesting video of the software programming learning process—a teacher responding literally to commands from his students on how to make a jam sandwich. It’s harder than it looks. Cadence’s Brian Fuller captures a speech by his colleague, Sanjiv Taneja, about the need for a comprehensive verification approach and smart IP reuse. The overriding th... » read more