tag: 5nm

What Transistors Will Look Like At 5nm
By Mark LaPedus - 18 Aug, 2016 - Comments: 3

Chipmakers are currently ramping up 16nm/14nm finFET processes, with 10nm and 7nm just around the corner. The industry also is working on 5nm. TSMC hopes to deliver a 5nm process by 2020. GlobalFoundries, Intel and Samsung are doing R&D for that node. But 5nm technology presents a multitude of unknowns and challenges. For one thing, the exact timing and specs of 5nm remain cloudy. The... » read more

5 Takeaways From Semicon
By Mark LaPedus - 21 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 0

As usual, the recent Semicon West trade show was a busy, if not an overwhelming, event. The event, which took place in San Francisco in early July, featured presentations on the usual subjects in the semiconductor and IC-equipment sectors. There were sessions on 200mm, next-generation processes, transistors, lithography, MEMS and many others. In no particular order, here are my five ta... » read more

To 7nm And Beyond
By Ed Sperling - 21 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 4

Gary Patton, chief technology officer at [getentity id="22819" comment="GlobalFoundries"], and Thomas Caulfield, senior vice president and general manager of Fab 8, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss future directions in technology, including the next rev of FD-SOI, the future of Moore’s Law, and how some very public challenges will likely unfold. SE: What do you see as the... » read more

Building Faster Chips
By Ed Sperling - 21 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 5

By Ed Sperling and Jeff Dorsch An explosion in IoT sensor data, the onset of deep learning and AI, and the commercial rollout of augmented and virtual reality are driving a renewed interest in performance as the key metric for semiconductor design. Throughout the past decade in which mobility/smartphone dominated chip design, power replaced performance as the top driver. Processors ha... » read more

Executive Insight: Aart de Geus
By Ed Sperling - 20 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 0

Aart de Geus, chairman and co-CEO of Synopsys, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss Moore's Law, the IoT, inflection points and how chip design will evolve in coming years. SE: We are in the middle of possibly one of the biggest transition points we’ve ever seen in this industry. How do you envision things shaking out? De Geus: There is no question that there is an enormou... » read more

Uncertainty Rocks Chip Market
By Ed Sperling - 30 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 1

The semiconductor industry is undergoing sweeping changes in every direction, making it far more difficult to figure out which path to take next, when to take it, and how to get there. The next few years will redefine which semiconductor companies emerge as leaders, which ones get pushed down or out or absorbed into other companies, and which markets will be the most lucrative. And that coul... » read more

Atomic Layer Etch Heats Up
By Mark LaPedus - 29 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 0

The atomic layer etch (ALE) market is starting to heat up as chipmakers push to 10nm and beyond. ALE is a promising next-generation etch technology that has been in R&D for the last several years, but until now there has been little or no need to use it. Unlike conventional etch tools, which remove materials on a continuous basis, ALE promises to selectively and precisely remove targete... » read more

The Road To 5nm
By Ed Sperling - 23 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 1

There is strong likelihood that enough companies will move to 7nm to warrant the investment. How many will move forward to 5nm is far less certain. Part of the reason for this uncertainty is big-company consolidation. There are simply fewer customers left who can afford to build chips at the most advanced nodes. Intel bought Altera. Avago bought Broadcom. NXP bought Freescale. GlobalFoundrie... » read more

Executive Insight: Aki Fujimura
By Mark LaPedus - 23 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 1

Aki Fujimura, chief executive of D2S, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to look at the key issues in lithography and photomasks, as well as the changes taking place in the IC industry. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: The semiconductor market is changing on several fronts. On one front, there is a wave of consolidation in the industry. And then there is a slowdown in... » read more

Pathfinding Beyond FinFETs
By Paula Doe - 13 Jun, 2016 - Comments: 0

Though the industry will likely continue to find ways to extend CMOS finFET technology further than we thought possible, at some point in the not-so-distant future, making faster, lower power ICs will require more disruptive changes. For something that could be only five to seven years out, there’s a daunting range of contending technologies. Improvements through the process will help, from E... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

  • Sponsors

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2013-2025 SMG   |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy