More Problems Ahead


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss future scaling problems with Lars Liebmann, a fellow at IBM; Adam Brand, managing director of transistor technology at Applied Materials; Karim Arabi, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm; and Srinivas Banna, a fellow for advanced technology architecture at GlobalFoundries. SE: Where are the most severe issues these days? Is it on the design... » read more

What Happened To Next-Gen Lithography?


Chipmakers continue to march down the process technology curve. Using today’s optical lithography and multiple patterning, the semiconductor industry is scaling its leading-edge devices far beyond what was once considered possible. The question is how far can the industry extend 193nm immersion [getkc id="80" comment="lithography"] and multiple patterning before these technologies become t... » read more

More Problems Ahead


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss future scaling problems with Lars Liebmann, a fellow at IBM; Adam Brand, managing director of transistor technology at Applied Materials; Karim Arabi, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm; and Srinivas Banna, a fellow for advanced technology architecture at GlobalFoundries. SE: There seems to be some debate in this group about whether we’r... » read more

DSA: Hype Or Revolution?


Directed self-assembly (DSA) has become the subject of a great deal of research attention in the lithography world, to the point where there were dedicated sessions at this year’s Advanced Lithography conference in February. So is this just another passing research fad, or is it a technology that will revolutionize semiconductor manufacturing? DSA utilizes a block copolymer that effectivel... » read more

More Problems Ahead


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss future scaling problems with Lars Liebmann, a fellow at IBM; Adam Brand, managing director of transistor technology at Applied Materials; Karim Arabi, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm; and Srinivas Banna, a fellow for advanced technology architecture at GlobalFoundries. SE: We’re starting to hear talk about octuple patterning. We’ve ... » read more

Why The Next Couple Process Nodes Are So Critical


In the greater scheme of things, one process node doesn't matter all that much. In fact, it has become common practice for big chipmakers to skip nodes for some of their chips as power issues becoming increasingly complex, time-to-market windows shrink and leapfrogging is viewed as a way to maximize resources while remaining über-competitive. But the next process node, and certainly the nex... » read more

More People Use Phones Than Toothbrushes…


“Business Has Only Two Functions – Marketing and Innovation” — Milan Kundera There may be more to running a successful business than marketing and innovation, but these two functions were front-and-center at SEMICON West 2014. This year’s industry gathering was an important, and positive, step forward together. Because of the gravity of the challenges facing our industry – funda... » read more

EUV Is Key To 450mm Wafers


Whether the wafers in question are 200 mm in diameter, or 300 mm, or potentially 450 mm, larger wafer sizes have always been justified by manufacturing economics. If the cost to process a wafer stays the same, but the wafer contains more devices, then the cost per device goes down. For processes that apply to the entire wafer at once — etch, deposition, cleaning, and so forth — the equation... » read more

EUV Light Source Makes Progress


EUV Lithography light source maker, Gigaphoton has developed a laser-produced plasma (LPP) light source prototype model that can produce a maximum of 92 watts. This is more than double the 43 watts produced using a traditional LPP light source. Figure 1 conceptual diagram of EUV exposure. Source: Gigaphoton/EUVA The biggest issue with EUV lithography has been the output power of the lig... » read more

All Roads Point Up…But When?


One of the clear messages at Semicon West this month was that stacked die are coming soon. The only question is how soon. This isn’t so simple to answer. It depends on a lot of factors, and for most of them there aren’t any clear answers. First of all, no one is certain what the cost equation will look like at 14/16nm, particularly once the process technology becomes more mature. Ther... » read more

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