Billions And Billions Invested


Over the years, next-generation [getkc id="80" kc_name="lithography"] (NGL) has suffered various setbacks and delays. But until recently, the industry basically shrugged its shoulders and expressed relatively little anxiety about the NGL delays. After all, optical lithography was doing the job in the fab and NGL would eventually materialize. Today, however, the mood is different. In fact, th... » read more

A Guide To Advanced Process Design Kits


The increasing complexity of design enablement has prompted manufacturers to optimize the design process. New tools and techniques, thanks to next-generation hardware and software, have provided a new platform for semiconductor and wafer design. Advanced PDKs are the solution and have been developed by foundries to optimize the design process and leverage and reuse intellectual property (IP) an... » read more

Power Moves Up To First Place


Virtually every presentation delivered about semiconductor design or manufacturing these days—and every end product specification that uses advanced technology—incorporates some reference to power and/or energy. It has emerged as the most persistent, most problematic, and certainly the most talked about issue from conception to marketplace adoption. And the conversation only grows louder... » read more

Tech Talk: Multipatterning, Take Two


Mentor Graphics' David Abercrombie continues with his whiteboard talk about coloring with advanced lithography, including what goes wrong and how to fix it. [youtube vid=HCBtvHCcbf4] » read more

Blog Review: March 26


Synopsys’ Eric Huang has discovered a video of Superman using a GoPro camera (scroll down to bottom of page). So this is what it’s like to stop bullets with your hand. Cadence’s Tom Hackett zeroes in on mobile interfaces in a video—SoC fabric, memory and chip-to-chip. Nice whiteboard drawing. Mentor’s Anil Khanna looks at a methodology for developing high-performance embedded so... » read more

Litho Is Out Of Sync


EUV’s repeated missed deadlines, and the slow-motion response by the rest of the industry to fill the void with alternatives, is having ripple effects in every facet and corner of the semiconductor industry. It’s making design harder and more expensive, introducing potential errors into the DFM flow, and greatly increasing the amount of time it takes to process wafers. It’s also adding a ... » read more

EUV Reaches A Crossroads


[gettech id="31045" comment="EUV"] (EUV) [getkc id="80" comment="lithography"] is at a crossroads. 2014 represents a critical year for the technology. In fact, it may answer a pressing question about EUV: Does it work or not? It’s too early to make that determination right now, but there are more uncertainties than ever for the oft-delayed technology. Originally aimed for the 65nm node in... » read more

Advanced Lithography: Moore’s Law Moves On


Every February, experts in nano patterning technologies converge in San Jose, Calif., to present their road maps, brainstorms and results at the SPIE Advanced Lithography Symposium. This year, there was more confusion than ever, partly the result of sessions in unlabeled (but beautiful) new ballrooms at the Convention Center, but mostly because of industry divergences. There is no longer a s... » read more

Next-Generation Lithography


Aki Fujimura, CEO of D2S, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the challenges of moving to the next process nodes and how that will affect everything from lithography to the write time, size and cost of photomasks. [youtube vid=L96vi-BjhDU] » read more

Tech Talk: Multipatterning


Mentor Graphics' David Abercrombie shows how multi patterning is supposed to be done, and what sorts of problems can crop up along the way. Now that EUV has hit another hiccup, the semiconductor industry has little choice. [youtube vid=tOs_OMSh4Nk] » read more

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