Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive As part of its in-cabin monitoring wares at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022, U.S.-based Gentex demonstrated the Vaporsens gas sensors, a nanofiber chemical sensor technology that monitors cabin air quality and can ID airborne contaminants. One use would be to monitor if outside contaminants get into the cabin, the sensor could trigger the car to turn on the recirculation of air... » read more

Expanding Advanced Packaging Production In The U.S.


The United States is taking the first steps toward bringing larger-scale IC packaging production capabilities back to the U.S. as supply chain concerns and trade tensions grow. The U.S. is among the leaders in developing packages, especially new and advanced forms of the technology that promise to shake up the semiconductor landscape. And while the U.S. has several packaging vendors, North A... » read more

Six Examples Of Predictive Maintenance


One of the many tools that condition monitoring enables us to provide is predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance allows you to improve business efficiency by minimizing downtime and increasing productivity. This is achieved by strategically monitoring assets and conditions specific to your business, which vary significantly based on your industry. While several companies directly be... » read more

A Novel Multifunctional Single-Layer Adhesive Used For Both Temporary Bonding And Mechanical Debonding in Wafer-Level Packaging Applications


Temporary bonding (TB) and debonding (DB) of wafers have been widely developed and applied over the last decade in various wafer-level packaging technologies, such as package-on-package (PoP), fan-out integration, and 2.5D and 3D integration using through-silicon vias (TSVs). The materials used to achieve TB and DB are extremely critical and the industry's current best practice is the use of tw... » read more

Using Manufacturing Data To Boost Reliability


As chipmakers turn to increasingly customized and complex heterogeneous designs to boost performance per watt, they also are demanding lower defectivity and higher yields to help offset the rising design and manufacturing costs. Solving those issues is a mammoth multi-vendor effort. There can be hundreds of process steps in fabs and packaging houses. And as feature sizes continue to shrink, ... » read more

End In Sight For Chip Shortages?


The current wave of semiconductor and IC packaging shortages is expected to extend well into 2022, but there are also signs that supply may finally catch up with demand. The same is true for manufacturing capacity, materials and equipment in both the semiconductor and packaging sectors. Nonetheless, after a period of shortages in all segments, the current school of thought is that chip suppl... » read more

Workplace Safety Lessons From The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill


The Deepwater Horizon oil spill on April 20th, 2010, was the largest marine oil spill in history, marking a significant change in the oil industry and safety standards thereafter. What data do we have on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill? BP leased the oil rig, however, it was owned and operated by an offshore company called Transocean. The drilling reached a depth of nearly 1 mile, at 5,000 ... » read more

Chemistry Working For Lithography: The Marangoni-Effect-Based Single Layer For Enhanced Planarization


In the field of semiconductor manufacturing, there is still a continuous search for techniques to improve the Critical Dimension Uniformity (CDU) across the wafer. CDU improvement and general defectiveness reduction increase the industrial yield and guarantee high reliability standards. In the KrF Dual-Damascene module integration, at a lithographic level, deep trench planarization is mandatory... » read more

Scaling Bump Pitches In Advanced Packaging


Interconnects for advanced packaging are at a crossroads as an assortment of new package types are pushing further into the mainstream, with some vendors opting to extend the traditional bump approaches while others roll out new ones to replace them. The goal in all cases is to ensure signal integrity between components in IC packages as the volume of data being processed increases. But as d... » read more

Four Types Of Predictive Maintenance Technologies


Through the expansion of our Smart Devices and Printed Electronics Foundry, we have assisted a diverse range of customers to find the benefits of predictive maintenance to improve the efficiency of their production, the safety of their personnel, and the quality of their products. We have identified some of the most prevalent predictive maintenance technologies and some of the most common appl... » read more

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