Mixed Outlook For Silicon Wafer Biz

By Mark LaPedus - 21 Feb, 2019 - Comments: 0

After a period of record growth, the silicon wafer industry is off to a slow start in 2019 and facing a mixed outlook. Generally, 200mm silicon wafer supply remains tight. But demand for 300mm silicon wafers is cooling off in some segments, causing supply to move toward equilibrium after a period of shortages. On average, though, silicon wafer prices continue to rise despite the slowdown. ... » read more

Fearless chip and fab tool forecasts

By Mark LaPedus - 24 Jan, 2019 - Comments: 1

2019 is expected to be a challenging, if not confusing, year for the semiconductor and fab equipment industries. For example, Apple recently issued a warning about lackluster smartphone demand, which impacted several IC vendors and foundries. Then, the memory market is plummeting. In addition, the 10nm/7nm transition has proven to be difficult for many. And let’s not forget the geopolitica... » read more

Week In Review: Design

By Ed Sperling - 28 Dec, 2018 - Comments: 0

Deals eSilicon teamed up with Sunflower Mission once again to present 59 university scholarships for engineering and technology students in Vietnam. Foxconn, the huge Taiwanese contract manufacturer (aka Hon Hai Precision Industry), already announced plans to build a chip plant in Zhuhai, outside of Hong Kong. Now it has developed plans to assemble high-end iPhones in India next year. What'... » read more

Follow The Moving Money

By Ed Sperling - 18 Jan, 2018 - Comments: 1

Semiconductor economics are changing by market, by region, and by product node and packaging type, adding new complexity into decisions about which technology to use for which products and why. Money is the common denominator in all of these decisions, whether it's measured by return on invested capital, quarterly profits, or long-term investments that can include acquisitions, organic growt... » read more

From Uncertainty To New Markets

By Bettina Weiss - 18 Aug, 2016 - Comments: 0

The 11th annual SEMI/Gartner Market Symposium at SEMICON West 2016 presented diverse perspectives on trends and developments in the macroeconomic environment as well as the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain. The themes have significant and immediate impact on the industry and include economic uncertainty, Brexit, China’s ambitious plans for an indigenous chip industry, and evolving end... » read more

Behind The ARM-SoftBank Deal

By Jeff Dorsch - 04 Aug, 2016 - Comments: 0

Weeks after SoftBank announced plans to buy ARM for $32 billion, the deal continues to reverberate across the global semiconductor industry. Any acquisition of this magnitude leaves customers, suppliers and partners a little skittish. And for good reason—ARM is the No. 1 supplier of commercial processor IP. Much of the fabless semiconductor market, as well as some IDMs, cross paths with AR... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT

By Jeff Dorsch - 01 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 0

Deals Rambus agreed to acquire the assets of Inphi’s Memory Interconnect Business for $90 million in cash. Under the usual closing conditions, the transaction is scheduled to conclude during the third quarter. The business assets take in customer contracts, intellectual property, product inventory, and supply-chain agreements. “By combining our buffer chip team with the Memory Interconnect... » read more

Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer