Chip Industry Week In Review


CSIS issued a new report that says Intel is "not too big to fail, but too good to lose." The report noted that Intel is needed for national security, and that it must be viewed in a geopolitical context rather than from a purely business standpoint when it comes to funding the company. Japan's government is creating a 10 trillion yen (~$65 billion) fund for next-gen technologies, including A... » read more

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg


Shift left is evolving from a buzzword into a much broader shift in design methodology and EDA tooling, and while it's still early innings there is widespread agreement that it will be transformative. The semiconductor industry has gone through many changes over the past few decades. Some are obvious, but others happen because of a convergence of multiple factors that require systemic change... » read more

Research Bits: Nov. 11


Quantum tunneling transistor Researchers from MIT and University of Udine fabricated a transistor that uses ultrathin layers of gallium antimonide and indium arsenide arranged in vertical nanowire heterostructures with a diameter of 6nm. The quantum tunneling effects of the material enable it to simultaneously achieve low-voltage operation and high performance. “This is a technology with ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Analog Devices acquired Flex Logix's technology assets, along with its technical team. Semiconductor global sales increased 23% in Q3 2024 $166B, up almost 11% versus the same period in 2023, according to SIA. Notable regional year-to-year sales in September: Americas up 46%, China up 23%, Europe down 8%. Fig.1: Worldwide Semiconductor Revenues, year-to-year % change. Source: Semiconduc... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Siemens announced plans to acquire Altair Engineering, a provider of industrial simulation and analysis, data science, and high-performance computing (HPC) software, for about $10 billion. Altair's software will become part of Siemens' Xcelerator portfolio and provide a boost to physics-based digital twins. Onto Innovation bought Lumina Instruments, a San Jose, California-based maker of lase... » read more

2D Semiconductors Make Progress, But So Does Silicon


Semiconductor industry researchers have been anticipating the need for better transistor channel materials to replace silicon for a long time, but silicon devices have continued to improve enough to postpone that change. Silicon continues to provide an unmatched combination of device performance, manufacturability, and cost effectiveness. In recent years, though, the “end of silicon” cha... » read more

Hybrid Bonding Makes Strides Toward Manufacturability


Hybrid bonding is gaining traction in advanced packaging because it offers the shortest vertical connection between dies of similar or different functionalities, as well as better thermal, electrical and reliability results. Advantages include interconnect scaling to submicron pitches, high bandwidth, enhanced power efficiency, and better scaling relative to solder ball connections. But whil... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Europe's top court ruled in Intel's favor, voiding a $1.1 billion fine imposed by the European Union and dismissing charges of anti-competitive behavior. IBM released yield benchmarks for high-NA EUV, which serve as proof points that the newest advanced litho equipment will enable scaling beyond the 2nm process node. Also on the lithography front, Nikon is developing a maskless digital litho... » read more

Monolithic Vs. Heterogeneous Integration


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss two very different paths forward for semiconductors and what's needed for each, with Jamie Schaeffer, vice president of product management at GlobalFoundries; Dechao Guo, director of advanced logic technology R&D at IBM; Dave Thompson, vice president at Intel; Mustafa Badaroglu, principal engineer at Qualcomm; and Thomas Po... » read more

Americas Chip Funding Energizes Industry


This is the second in a series of articles tracking government chip investments. See part one here (global),  part 3 covering EMEA is here and Asia here. Since the first announcement of a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms with BAE Systems in December 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce has rolled out comprehensive plans to support more than a dozen companies in order to shore up... » read more

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