EUV Mask Gaps And Issues

By Mark LaPedus - 08 May, 2019 - Comments: 1

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and photomask technologies with Emily Gallagher, principal member of the technical staff at Imec; Harry Levinson, principal at HJL Lithography; Chris Spence, vice president of advanced technology development at ASML; Banqiu Wu, senior director of process development at Applied Materials; and Aki Fujimura, chief ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

By Mark LaPedus - 19 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 0

Chipmakers Here comes the battle between 5nm and 6nm processes at two foundry vendors—Samsung and TSMC. Meanwhile, Intel is behind and scrambling to get 10nm out the door. (Intel's 10nm is equivalent to 7nm from the foundries.) Last week, TSMC announced delivery of a complete version of its 5nm design infrastructure. TSMC’s 5nm technology is based on a finFET. This week, Samsung anno... » read more

Lithography Options For Next-Gen Devices

By Mark LaPedus - 18 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 2

Chipmakers are ramping up extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography for advanced logic at 7nm and/or 5nm, but EUV isn’t the only lithographic option on the table. For some time, the industry has been working on an assortment of other next-generation lithography technologies, including a new version of EUV. Each technology is different and aimed at different applications. Some are here today, w... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

By Mark LaPedus - 29 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 0

Materials Wesfarmers, an Australian diversified firm, has made an unsolicited bid to acquire Lynas, one of the world’s largest suppliers of rare earths outside of China. Rare earths are chemical elements found in the Earth’s crust. They are used in cars, consumer electronics, computers, communications, clean energy and defense systems. The big market for rare earths is magnets. In semicond... » read more

Single Vs. Multi-Patterning EUV

By Mark LaPedus - 25 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 5

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography finally is moving into production, but foundry customers now must decide whether to implement their designs using EUV-based single patterning at 7nm, or whether to wait and instead deploy EUV multiple patterning at 5nm. Each patterning scheme has unique challenges, making that decision more difficult than it might appear. Targeted for 7nm, single pattern... » read more

EUV Mask Readiness Challenges

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

Finding Defects In Chips With Machine Learning

By Mark LaPedus - 12 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 7

Chipmakers are using more and different traditional tool types than ever to find killer defects in advanced chips, but they are also turning to complementary solutions like advanced forms of machine learning to help solve the problem. A subset of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning has been used in computing and other fields for decades. In fact, early forms of machine learning ha... » read more

Engineering Talent Shortage Now Top Risk Factor

By Mark LaPedus - 25 Feb, 2019 - Comments: 16

Demand is increasing for engineers and related technical fields in the IC industry, but companies are struggling to find enough talent. The problem is even worse in hot new markets such as AI and 5G, where competition is fierce for experienced workers. The talent shortfall starts with college graduates and professionals in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)... » read more

Variation Issues Grow Wider And Deeper

By Ed Sperling - 24 Jan, 2019 - Comments: 0

Variation is becoming more problematic as chips become increasingly heterogeneous and as they are used in new applications and different locations, sparking concerns about how to solve these issues and what the full impact will be. In the past, variation in semiconductors was considered a foundry issue, typically at the most advanced process node, and largely ignored by most companies. New p... » read more

Machine Learning For IC Production

By Mark LaPedus - 16 Jan, 2019 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and chip and photomask manufacturing technologies with Aki Fujimura, chief executive of D2S; Jerry Chen, business and ecosystem development manager at Nvidia; Noriaki Nakayamada, senior technologist at NuFlare; and Mikael Wahlsten, director and product area manager at Mycronic. What follows are excerpt... » read more

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tag: D2S

EUV Mask Gaps And Issues

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

Lithography Options For Next-Gen Devices

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

Single Vs. Multi-Patterning EUV

EUV Mask Readiness Challenges

Finding Defects In Chips With Machine Learning

Engineering Talent Shortage Now Top Risk Factor

Variation Issues Grow Wider And Deeper

Machine Learning For IC Production