Digitalizing Water Monitoring


Managing water resources has always been important, but that monitoring is becoming increasingly high-tech and much more useful. Rather than a spot check at the tap, or a crude measurement of water levels in a reservoir, chips are making it possible to monitor and measure water quantity and quality at the source, wherever it is stored, the spigot, and in the wastewater systems. As climate ch... » read more

Big Changes In Materials And Processes For IC Manufacturing


Rama Puligadda, CTO at Brewer Science, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about a broad set of changes in semiconductor manufacturing, packaging, and materials, and how that will affect reliability, processes, and equipment across the supply chain. SE: What role do sacrificial materials play in semiconductor manufacturing, and how is that changing at new process nodes? Puliga... » read more

5 Traits For Healthy Competition


Competition encourages continuous improvement. Therefore, to enable growth, surround yourself with others who aspire to be better. This fundamental concept is most notably quoted in Proverbs 27:17, “iron sharpens iron,” interpreted as when both people are committed to growth, they recognize challenges as opportunities, not obstacles. Competitive people are found everywhere. The competiti... » read more

A Single-Layer Mechanical Debonding Adhesive For Advanced Wafer-Level Packaging


Better performance and lower cost are always key trends being pursued in the semiconductor industry. Moore's law has provided a very well-defined relationship between performance and cost and the semiconductor industry has followed this law for the past several decades with no issue. However, it became more and more difficult for foundries and integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) to scale to ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


The U.S. Senate approved the 2022 America COMPETES act, which has big ramifications for the chip industry. The bill now heads to the House for further reconciliation. If approved, it would provide more than $50 billion in U.S. subsidies for semiconductor chip manufacturing. The SIAC (Semiconductor In America Coalition) urged Congress to act promptly to achieve a bipartisan compromise soon and o... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers, OEMs Intel continues to build more fabs. First, the company announced fabs in Arizona and then Ohio. Now, Intel plans to invest up to €80 billion in the European Union over the next decade. As part of the effort, Intel plans to build two semiconductor fabs in Magdeburg, Germany. Construction is expected to begin in the first half of 2023 and production planned to come online in 2... » read more

The Challenge Doesn’t Stop At Certification: Post-B Corp Certification Reflections


Nearly one year after becoming the semiconductor industry’s first Certified B Corporation by meeting the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility, Brewer Science still finds itself faced with a number challenges associated with upholding the B Corp mission. Following are five main challenges we are working to tackle in our ongoing pursuit to fulfill the B Corp missi... » read more

Blog Review: March 2


Arm's Charlotte Christopherson checks out SpiNNaker1, a project to develop a massively parallel, manycore supercomputer architecture that mimicked the interactions of biological neurons, and its follow up, SpiNNaker2, a hybrid system that combines statistical AI and neuromorphic computing. Cadence's Paul McLellan looks at open and generic PDKs that can be used by researchers and in education... » read more

Transistors Reach Tipping Point At 3nm


The semiconductor industry is making its first major change in a new transistor type in more than a decade, moving toward a next-generation structure called gate-all-around (GAA) FETs. Although GAA transistors have yet to ship, many industry experts are wondering how long this technology will deliver — and what new architecture will take over from there. Barring major delays, today’s GAA... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy The Government of Quebec and IBM have announced a new partnership to establish Quebec as a technology hub in the development of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and high-performance computing. The two entities have formed the Quebec-IBM Discovery Accelerator. The new technology hub aims to focus on developing new projects, collaborations, and skills-... » read more

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