VLSI 2026: Intel 18A Platform Momentum From Devices To Routed Designs


Intel Foundry’s process technology roadmap is powered by innovations that are enabling customers to build increasingly capable products for the artificial intelligence (AI) era. At the 2026 IEEE/JSAP Symposium on VLSI Technology & Circuits, Intel Foundry presented progress on a number of important aspects of our front-end silicon process innovations. This includes Intel 18A-P featurin... » read more

Advanced Packaging Limits Come Into Focus


Key Takeaways: Packaging is now a performance variable. Substrate, bonding, and process sequence determine what can be built at scale. Warpage underlies most advanced packaging failures and gets harder to control as package sizes grow. Every proposed solution, such as glass, panel processing, and backside power, solves one problem while creating another. Moore's Law has shif... » read more

Unlocking PPA Benefits of Backside Routing


The power delivery network (PDN) is a critical part of any modern semiconductor device. Even with advanced power-saving technologies, today’s chips are hungry for power. Traditionally, power is distributed through metal layers on the same side of the substrate as the signal metal layers. This creates competition for the available layers and pushes the limits of fabrication technology to add m... » read more

Building Better Bridges In Advanced Packaging


The increasing challenges and rising cost of logic scaling, along with demands for an increasing number of features, are pushing more companies into advanced packaging. And while that opens up a slew of new options, it also is causing widespread confusion over what works best for different processes and technologies. At its core, advanced packaging depends on reliable interconnects, well-def... » read more

Large-Scale Integration’s Future Depends On Modeling


VLSI is a term that conjures up images of a college textbook, but some of the concepts included in very large-scale integration remain relevant and continue to evolve, while others have fallen by the wayside. The portion of VLSI that remains most relevant for semiconductor industry is "integration," which is pushing well beyond the edges of a monolithic planar chip. But that expansion also i... » read more

Backside Power Delivery as a Scaling Knob for Future Systems


Standard cell track height scaling provides us with sufficient area scaling at the standard cell library level. The efficiency of this technique and the complexities involved with this scaling method have been discussed in detail. However, the area benefits of standard cell track height scaling diminish when we consider the complexities of incorporating on-chip power grid into the DTCO explorat... » read more