Designing Chips For Test Data


Collecting data to determine the health of a chip throughout its lifecycle is becoming necessary as chips are used in more critical applications, but being able to access that data isn't always so simple. It requires moving signals through a complex, sometimes unpredictable, and often hostile environment, which is a daunting challenge under the best of conditions. There is a growing sense of... » read more

Why Wafer Bumps Are Suddenly So Important


Wafer bumps need to be uniform in height to facilitate subsequent manufacturing steps, but a push for 100% inspection in packaging in mission-critical markets is putting a strain on existing measurement technologies. Bump co-planarity is essentially a measure of flatness. Specifically, it measures the variation in bump height, which may have a target, for example, of about 100 microns. As a ... » read more

In-Line Airborne Particle Sensing Supports Faster Response To Contamination Excursions


Fine particles (less than 5 micrometers in diameter) do not affect most industrial processes, but they can have a disastrous impact on semiconductor manufacturing. From the earliest days, manufacturing facilities have deployed air filtering and recirculation to remove particles from the cleanroom, but particles may still be generated inside process tools, where they can cause defects and yield ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers Intel has outlined its new process technology roadmap with plans to regain the leadership position in the market. As part of the move, Intel has changed the way it designates the nodes, revealed its new gate-all-around (GAA) transistor, and disclosed a customer for the GAA technology--Qualcomm. And not to be outdone, Intel has broadened its packaging portfolio. Intel is changing ... » read more

MicroLEDs Moving From Lab to Fab


Every disruptive technology has its "aha" moment — the time when everyone from engineers to investors realizes that, yes, this technology is the real deal and it won’t be scrapped on the R&D floor. For many, it was Samsung’s recent announcement of a 110-inch microLED TV that irrevocably put microLEDs on the map. The TV’s price is $155,000, but as with most consumer electronics th... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs China has been working on compound semiconductors, such as gallium-nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC). Now, a China-backed company has taken a big step in the SiC and related markets. Chip supplier Nexperia, a subsidiary of China’s Wingtech Technology, has acquired Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), a U.K.-based manufacture of power and compound semiconductors, including Si... » read more

IC Data Hot Potato: Who Owns And Manages It?


Modern inspection, metrology, and test equipment produces a flood of data during the manufacturing and testing of semiconductors. Now the question is what to do with all of that data. Image resolutions in inspection and metrology have been improving for some time to deal with increased density and smaller features, creating a downstream effect that has largely gone unmanaged. Higher resoluti... » read more

Reliability Costs Becoming Harder To Track


Ensuring reliability in chips is becoming more complex and significantly more expensive, shifting left into the design cycle and right into the field. But those costs also are becoming more difficult to define and track, varying greatly from one design to the next based upon process node, package technology, market segment, and which fab or OSAT is used. As the number of options increases fo... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy The Malaysian government has extended its lockdown due to the pandemic until June 14, a move that may impact the global electronics supply chain, according to TrendForce. Malaysia recently implemented MCO 3.0 (Movement Control Order), the nation’s pandemic control measure. Malaysia is home to many fab equipment, packaging and testing facilities, as well as passive compon... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy The U.S. government hopes to build more fabs and expand its R&D efforts in the United States. To help enable those efforts, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer has introduced the new bipartisan U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. This combines Schumer’s Endless Frontier Act and other bipartisan competitiveness bills. It includes $52 billion in emergency supplem... » read more

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