Self-Aligned Double Patterning, Part One


I’m sure most of you have seen a Rorschach test ink blot (Figure 1). Psychiatrists ask the subjects to tell them what they “see” in the ink blot. The answers are used to characterize the respondent’s personality and emotional functioning. I am never sure if I would feel more uncertain being the psychiatrist asking the question, or the subject trying to decide what to say, given there ar... » read more

One-On-One: Linyong Pang


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss trends in the lithography and photomask business with Linyong “Leo” Pang, the new chief product officer and executive vice president at D2S, which focuses on model-based mask data preparation as well as other mask writing technologies. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Before you arrived at D2S you were at Luminescent, whic... » read more

FinFET Learning


FinFETs are not simple to work with. They’re difficult to manufacture, tricky to design, and they run the risk of greatly increased dynamic power density—particularly at 14/16nm, where extra margin is hard to justify—which affects everything from electromigration to signal integrity. Moreover, while finFETs have been on the drawing board for more than a decade, it’s taken four years ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 6


Litho beam startup A startup has developed a new beam technology for advanced lithography applications. The company, called Digibeam, has demonstrated the ability to shoot a particle beam through a slow wave RF structure to create a train of compressed beam packets for high-throughput lithography. “Synchronized with high-speed deflection, the core technology enables shot rates well into t... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 29


Silky e-beam lithography Tufts University has put a soft and silky spin on direct-write electron-beam lithography. Researchers used common silk as the resist material, enabling the production of photonic lattices, quantum dots and other structures. This approach is a green alternative to traditional and toxic resists. The silk-based resist is developed using a water-based process. It starts... » read more

Stopping Mask Hotspots Before They Escape The Mask Shop


By Aki Fujimura The same types of physics-based issues that have haunted lithography for decades have started to impact mask writing as well. The increasingly small and complex mask shapes specified by optical proximity correction (OPC) that are now required for faithful wafer lithography at 28nm-and-below nodes have given rise to an increase in mask hotspots. Mask hotspots occur when the shap... » read more

Mask Issues Ahead


It's not just the lithography that's getting complicated. Check out this video by Dai Nippon Printing's Naoya Hayashi. [youtube vid=a6WmvhTdEv4] » read more

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

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