Precision Patterning Options Emerge For Advanced Packaging

By Gregory Haley - 23 Jul, 2024 - Comments: 0

The chip industry is ratcheting up investments in advanced packaging as it strives to keep pace with demands for increased functionality and higher performance, including novel patterning technologies that can reduce costs and speed time to market. Success in advanced packages is partly dependent on effectively managing the interconnectivity between the chips, which requires increasingly pre... » read more

Single Vs. Multi-Patterning Advancements For EUV

By Gregory Haley - 20 Jun, 2024 - Comments: 0

As semiconductor devices become more complex, so do the methods for patterning them. Ever-smaller features at each new node require continuous advancements in photolithography techniques and technologies. While the basic lithography process hasn’t changed since the founding of the industry — exposing light through a reticle onto a prepared silicon wafer — the techniques and technology ... » read more

AI/ML Challenges In Test and Metrology

By Gregory Haley - 12 Mar, 2024 - Comments: 0

The integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) into semiconductor test and metrology is redefining the landscape for chip fabrication, which will be essential at advanced nodes and in increasingly dense advanced packages. Fabs today are inundated by vast amounts of data collected across multiple manufacturing processes, and AI/ML solutions are viewed as essential for... » read more

Yield Tracking In RDL

By Ed Sperling - 07 Feb, 2024 - Comments: 0

Yield is a much bigger issue when it comes to panel-level packages, which may contain up to 24 RDL layers. Just finding the defects is a massive challenge, let alone understanding how they will impact the entire device. Many of these advanced packages are being used in data centers for generative AI, and killer defects caused by bridges and opens can cause serious problems. What happens, for in... » read more

Metrology Strategies For 2nm Processes

By Laura Peters - 07 Mar, 2023 - Comments: 3

Metrology and wafer inspection processes are changing to keep up with evolving and new device applications. While fab floors still have plenty of OCD tools, ellipsometers, and CD-SEMs, new systems are taking on the increasingly 3D nature of structures and the new materials they incorporate. For instance, processes like hybrid bonding, 3D NAND flash devices, and nanosheet FETs are pushing the bo... » read more

IC Stresses Affect Reliability At Advanced Nodes

By Ann Mutschler - 08 Dec, 2022 - Comments: 1

Thermal-induced stress is now one of the leading causes of transistor failures, and it is becoming a top focus for chipmakers as more and different kinds of chips and materials are packaged together for safety- and mission-critical applications. The causes of stress are numerous. In heterogeneous packages, it can stem from multiple components composed of different materials. “These materia... » read more

Systematic Yield Issues Now Top Priority At Advanced Nodes

By Laura Peters - 06 Dec, 2022 - Comments: 0

Systematic yield issues are supplanting random defects as the dominant concern in semiconductor manufacturing at the most advanced process nodes, requiring more time, effort, and cost to achieve sufficient yield. Yield is the ultimate hush hush topic in semiconductor manufacturing, but it's also the most critical because it determines how many chips can be profitably sold. "At older nodes, b... » read more

Deep Learning In Industrial Inspection

By Ed Sperling - 24 May, 2022 - Comments: 0

Deep learning is at the upper end of AI complexity, sifting through more data to achieve more accurate results. Charlie Zhu, vice president of R&D at CyberOptics, talks about how DL can be utilized with inspection to identify defects in chips that are not discernible by traditional computer vision algorithms, classifying multiple objects simultaneously from multiple angles and taking into accou... » read more

Using Manufacturing Data To Boost Reliability

By Ed Sperling and Ann Mutschler - 07 Dec, 2021 - Comments: 0

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

Speeding Up Scan-Based Volume Diagnosis

By Bryon Moyer - 07 Dec, 2021 - Comments: 0

In the critical process known as new-product bring-up, it’s a race to get new products to yield as quickly as possible. But the interplay between increasingly complex aspects of designs and process makes it difficult to find root causes of yield issues so they can be fixed quickly. Advanced processes have very high defectivity, and learning must be fast and effective. While progress has be... » read more

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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

NAND Flash Targets 1,000 Layers

New techniques go beyond improved deposition and etching, but challenges stack up, too.

by Bryon Moyer

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

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

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

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

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