ATE: The Road Ahead


Watching the ATE market is like having a front-row seat to watch the semiconductor industry's ups and downs, with none of the hype to confuse you. So 2014 was a very good market for SoC test, and it likewise a good year for SoCs. As we head into the latter half of this year and into 2016, however, a projected downturn in the mobile arena will likely put a crimp in those earnings. The prob... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


At the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference in San Jose, Calif., there were several takeaways. First, the battle for lithography share is heating up at Intel. “We believe Nikon still holds a decent position at Intel, but with ASML gaining some share at 10nm. Nikon could regain some share with its new platform at 7nm, in our view, but it is early to tell. We believe Nikon has improved its posi... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


The profile of a "tech geek" is typically a male. The label itself has transitioned from a negative to a positive connotation, according to new data from Crucial.com. In fact, almost half of women (45%) identified tech entrepreneurs as the most desirable potential spouse, compared to only 5% of women who would prefer a football player for a spouse. More than one in three women want a significan... » read more

How To Test IoT Devices


At a recent event, test experts said the IC industry needs a new paradigm in testing chips for the [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"] (IoT). The message was fairly simple to interpret. Existing automatic test equipment (ATE) is well suited to test today’s digital, analog, and mixed-signal chips, though it may be ill-equipped or too expensive to test IoT-based devices. But wha... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Has extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography finally turned the corner after numerous delays and setbacks? The big test for EUV could reside at TSMC. “TSMC ordered two new EUV tools (from ASML), and is expected to use four EUV tools in total (with the two new orders) for its 10nm process (likely one layer, ramping in 2016 or 2017). EUV remains far from ready for broad adoption, in our view, but ... » read more

ATE Market Gets More Crowded


Over the years, the automatic test equipment (ATE) industry has undergone a dramatic shakeout. In fact, the ATE industry has shrunk from about a dozen major vendors several years ago to just three sizable companies today. There is also a smattering of smaller ATE players in the market. In other words, the big ATE vendors became bigger and the mid-sized players were gobbled up. The consol... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Is the sky falling on the ATE market? The ATE market is expected to hit $2.8 billion in 2014, up from $2.28 billion in 2013, according to Pacific Crest Securities. “Overall, we are now modeling overall semiconductor test demand to decline by 2% in 2015, a significant change from our previous estimate of up 10%,” said Weston Twigg, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, in a report. “Te... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Tesla Motors plans to build a new 35-GWh, lithium-ion cell production facility for its electric vehicles. It sounds like a good idea. But the factory will bring about only a modest reduction in battery costs, and could create significant overcapacity in the arena, according to Lux Research. “The Gigafactory will only reduce the Tesla Model 3’s cost by $2,800, not enough to sway the success ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Intel announced two new technologies for foundry customers. One technology, dubbed Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB), is available to 14nm foundry customers. Instead of an expensive silicon interposer with TSVs, a small silicon bridge chip is embedded in the package, enabling high density die-to-die connections only where needed. EMIB eliminates the need for TSVs and specialized int... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Many are suffering from “fragiphoniphobia” without even realizing it, according to Kyocera. This is the fear of fragile phones and worries about the drops and spills ruining our smartphones and disrupting our lives. A recent survey from comScore revealed that 73% of consumers surveyed rated drop protection or scratch-proof/shatter-proof screens as the most desirable durability feature, whil... » read more

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