Enhancing Punch MLF Packaging with Edge Protection Technology


Quad Flat No-Lead (QFN) semiconductor packaging provides a small form factor as well as good electrical and thermal performance for low cost. Add demonstrated long term reliability to its benefits and it is easy to see why it has been a preferred automotive package for many years. QFNs are offered in saw and punch formats with punch being a well-defined and used solution in the automotive marke... » read more

Ramping Up Power Electronics For EVs


The rapid acceleration of the power devices used in electric vehicles (EVs) is challenging chipmakers to adequately screen the ICs that power these vehicles.[1] While progress toward autonomous driving is grabbing the public’s attention, the electrification of transportation systems is progressing quietly. For the automotive industry, this shift involves a mix of electronic components. Amo... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Former Apple engineer Weibao Wang was indicted for stealing Apple’s autonomous vehicle hardware and software IP and giving the information to Chinese competitors. Among other items, authorities said they found source code for the project on the engineer’s personal laptop, which was seized at his home. Wang fled to China the same day a search warrant was executed. This is one of five cases b... » read more

Challenges Grow For Creating Smaller Bumps For Flip Chips


New bump structures are being developed to enable higher interconnect densities in flip-chip packaging, but they are complex, expensive, and increasingly difficult to manufacture. For products with high pin counts, flip-chip [1] packages have long been a popular choice because they utilize the whole die area for interconnect. The technology has been in use since the 1970s, starting with IBM�... » read more

Next Gen Laser Assisted Bonding (LAB) Technology


In the semiconductor market, there are many applications including smartphone, tablets, central processing units (CPUs), artificial intelligence (AI), data cloud and more that are expecting rapid growth. Among them, CPU data processing, AI and data cloud require much higher power consumption than smart phones or tablets. For the higher power applications, Flip Chip ball grid array (FCBGA) or 2.... » read more

Smarter Ways To Manufacture Chips


OSAT and wafer fabs are beginning to invest in Industry 4.0 solutions in order to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs, but it's a complicated process that involves setting up frameworks to evaluate different options and goals. Semiconductor manufacturing facilities have relied on dedicated automation teams for decades. These teams track and schedule chip production, respond to equi... » read more

Power Semiconductors: A Deep Dive Into Materials, Manufacturing & Business


Whether you’re the owner of the average smartphone, commuting on trains, or driving around in a Tesla, you use power semiconductor devices every day. In a technology-dependent world, these devices are everywhere, and demand for more types of chips using different materials is growing. In the past, most engineers paid little attention to power semiconductors. They were deemed commodity, off... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Synopsys rolled out an AI-driven design suite called Synopsys.ai at the Synopsys User Group conference this week, which it says reduces time to better results at multiple points in the design flow. The company noted the new technology uses reinforcement learning, which compensates for relatively small data sets by allowing engineers to interact with that data more easily at any point, and to ch... » read more

Week In Review: Automotive, Security and Pervasive Computing


The Biden administration uncorked a fueling station locator tool to help consumers locate charging stations by fuel type, a plan to install 24,000 charging stations at federal facilities by next fiscal year, as well as other clean energy commitments. Source: Department of Energy: Alternative Fuels Data Center & Station Locator Europe is making progress on a plan that requires all ... » read more

Big Changes Ahead In Power Delivery, Materials, And Interconnects


Part one of this forecast looked at evolving transistor architectures and lithography platforms. This report examines revolutions in interconnects and packaging. When it comes to device interconnects, it’s hard to beat copper. Its low resistivity and high reliability have served the industry exceedingly well as both on-chip interconnect and wires between chips. But in logic chips, with int... » read more

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