Inspecting, Testing, And Measuring SiC


Achieving the auto industry's stringent zero defect goals is becoming a big challenge for makers of silicon carbide substrates, which are struggling to achieve sufficient yields and reliability as they migrate from 150mm to 200mm wafers and shift their focus away from pure silicon. SiC is a combination of silicon and harder carbide materials, and it has emerged as a key technology for batter... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Jan. 26


EU FIB project The European Union (EU) has launched a new project to develop next-generation structures and materials using focused ion beam (FIB) systems. The EU project, dubbed Focused Ion Technology for Nanomaterials or FIT4NANO, is spearheaded by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) organization. The project aims to bring European researchers and companies together to develop... » read more

What Makes A Chip Tamper-Proof?


The cyber world is the next major battlefield, and attackers are busily looking for ways to disrupt critical infrastructure. There is widespread proof this is happening. “Twenty-six percent of the U.S. power grid was found to be hosting Trojans," said Haydn Povey, IAR Systems' general manager of embedded security solutions. "In a cyber-warfare situation, that's the first thing that would b... » read more

zeroK NanoTech: FIB Circuit Edit


Focused ion beam (FIB) circuit editing is an enabling technology that has been around for some time. Using a standard FIB tool, a chipmaker can basically edit portions of a circuit before it goes into production. It allows chipmakers to debug chips, cut traces, add metal connections and perform other functions. One startup, zeroK NanoTech, is putting a new and innovative twist on FIB circui... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 13


Telling a FIB The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has built the first low-energy focused ion beam (FIB) microscope that uses a lithium ion source. Still in the R&D stage, the FIB microscope from NIST could be used to examine adjacent materials that are chemically different and identify the elements that make them up. The FIB microscope uses an ion source based on p... » read more