Memory-Based Cyberattacks Become More Complex, Difficult To Detect


Memories are becoming entry points for cyber attacks, raising concerns about system-level security because memories are nearly ubiquitous in electronics and breaches are difficult to detect. There is no end in sight with hackers taking aim at almost every consumer, industrial, and commercial segment, and a growing number of those devices connected to the internet and to each other. According... » read more

Wafer Cleaning Becomes Key Challenge In Manufacturing 3D Structures


Wafer cleaning, once a rather mundane task as simple as dipping wafers in cleaning fluid, is emerging as one of the top major engineering challenges for manufacturing GAA FETs and 3D-ICs. With these new 3D structures — some on the horizon but some already in high-volume manufacturing — semiconductor wafer equipment and materials suppliers in the wet cleaning business are at the epicenter... » read more

Insights Into Advanced DRAM Capacitor Patterning: Process Window Evaluation Using Virtual Fabrication


With continuous device scaling, process windows have become narrower and narrower due to smaller feature sizes and greater process step variability [1]. A key task during the R&D stage of semiconductor development is to choose a good integration scheme with a relatively large process window. When wafer test data is limited, evaluating the process window for different integration schemes can... » read more

Metal Oxide Resist (MOR) EUV Lithography Processes For DRAM Application


This paper reports the readiness of key EUV resist process technologies using Metal Oxide Resist (MOR) aiming for the DRAM application. For MOR, metal contamination reduction and CD uniformity (CDU) are the key performance requirements expected concerning post exposure bake (PEB). Based on years of experience with spin-on type Inpria MOR, we have designed a new PEB oven to achieve contamination... » read more

Pathfinding By Process Window Modeling


In advanced DRAM, capacitors with closely packed patterning are designed to increase cell density. Thus, advanced patterning schemes, such as multiple litho-etch, SADP and SAQP processes may be needed. In this paper, we systematically evaluate a DRAM capacitor hole formation process that includes SADP and SAQP patterning, using virtual fabrication and statistical analysis in SEMulator3D®. The ... » read more

Memory-Computation Decoupling Execution To Achieve Ideal All-Bank PIM Performance


A new technical paper titled "Achieving the Performance of All-Bank In-DRAM PIM With Standard Memory Interface: Memory-Computation Decoupling" was published by researchers at Korea University. "This paper proposed the memory-computation decoupled PIM architecture to provide the performance comparable to the all-bank PIM while preserving the standard DRAM interface, i.e., DRAM commands, powe... » read more

Decreasing Refresh Latency of Off-the-Shelf DRAM Chips


A new technical paper titled "HiRA: Hidden Row Activation for Reducing Refresh Latency of Off-the-Shelf DRAM Chips" was published by researchers at ETH Zürich, TOBB University of Economics and Technology and Galicia Supercomputing Center (CESGA). Abstract "DRAM is the building block of modern main memory systems. DRAM cells must be periodically refreshed to prevent data loss. Refresh oper... » read more

How Memory Design Optimizes System Performance


Exponential increases in data and demand for improved performance to process that data has spawned a variety of new approaches to processor design and packaging, but it also is driving big changes on the memory side. While the underlying technology still looks very familiar, the real shift is in the way those memories are connected to processing elements and various components within a syste... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


President Biden signed an executive order on Sept. 15, limiting foreign investments in U.S. technology by "competitor or adversarial nations" that are deemed a threat to national security. In the past, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) largely limited its actions to the sale of U.S. companies. The new directive expands that to include investments involving "U.S. s... » read more

Setting The Memory Controller Free From Managing DRAM Maintenance Ops (ETH Zurich)


A new technical paper titled "A Case for Self-Managing DRAM Chips: Improving Performance, Efficiency, Reliability, and Security via Autonomous in-DRAM Maintenance Operations" was published by researchers at ETH Zurich. Abstract: "The rigid interface of current DRAM chips places the memory controller completely in charge of DRAM control. Even DRAM maintenance operations, which are used to en... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →