tag: FormFactor

The Great Quantum Computing Race
By Mark LaPedus - 26 Jul, 2021 - Comments: 0

Quantum computing is heating up, as a growing number of entities race to benchmark, stabilize, and ultimately commercialize this technology. As of July 2021, a group from China appears to have taken the lead in terms of raw performance, but Google, IBM, Intel and other quantum computer developers aren’t far behind. All of that could change overnight, though. At this point, it's too early t... » read more

5G Chips Add Test Challenges
By Bryon Moyer - 06 Jul, 2021 - Comments: 1

The advent of chips supporting millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G signals is creating a new set of design and testing challenges. Effects that could be ignored at lower frequencies are now important. Performing high-volume test of RF chips will require much more from automated test equipment (ATE) than is required for chips operating below 6 GHz. “MmWave design is a pretty old thing,” said Y... » read more

Cleaning Up During IC Test
By Anne Meixner - 06 Jul, 2021 - Comments: 2

Test is a dirty business. It can contaminate a unit or wafer, or the test hardware, which in turn can cause problems in the field. While this has not gone unnoticed, particularly as costs rise due to increasing pin and ball density, and as more chips are bundled together in a package, the cost of dirt continues to be a focus. Cleaning recipes for test interface boards are changing, and analy... » read more

IC Data Hot Potato: Who Owns And Manages It?
By SE Staff - 06 Jul, 2021 - Comments: 1

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

Advanced mm-Wave And Terahertz Measurements With Cascade Probe Stations
By FormFactor - 06 Jul, 2021 - Comments: 0

The strong market needs to embed multiple functionalities from different semiconductor processing technologies into a single system continue to drive demands for more advanced 3DIC packaging technologies. Dimensions of copper pillar micro-bumps are consistently reduced in every new technology node to facilitate the 3D stacking of multiple dies so that overall system performance can be improved.... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test
By Ed Sperling - 25 Jun, 2021 - Comments: 0

Lots more fabs and capacity The chip industry sees opportunity in shortages, and is racing to meet demand. SEMI reports 19 new worldwide high-volume fabs already have started construction, or will start by end of this year, and another 10 are scheduled in 2022. “Equipment spending for these 29 fabs is expected to surpass $140 billion over the next few years as the industry pushes to addre... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing
By SE Staff - 25 Jun, 2021 - Comments: 0

Automotive Cadence will be capturing design insights from Presto Engineering, an ASIC designer working on high-performance system-in-package (SiP) development for the automotive and Industrial IoT markets. Presto, which also provides semiconductor services such as test and qualification, will use Cadence’s EDA and analysis tools (Allegro X Package Designer Plus, Clarity 3D Solver, Sigrity Xt... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test
By Mark LaPedus - 11 Jun, 2021 - Comments: 0

Chipmakers SiFive has received a takeover offer from Intel, according to a report from Bloomberg. The asking price is more than $2 billion. ------------------------------------------------------------------ IBM has filed suit against GlobalFoundries (GF), alleging fraud and breach of contract committed by GF. IBM’s suit, filed in the Supreme Court of the state of New York, seeks relief... » read more

Reliability Costs Becoming Harder To Track
By SE Staff - 08 Jun, 2021 - Comments: 0

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
By Mark LaPedus - 21 May, 2021 - Comments: 0

Packaging and test TrendForce has released its ranking of the top OSATs in terms of sales in the first quarter of 2021. ASE remains in the top spot, followed in order by Amkor, JCET, SPIL and PTI. “Industry leaders ASE and Amkor posted revenues of $1.69 billion and $1.33 billion, which are YoY increases of 24.6% and 15.0%, respectively, in 1Q21,” according to TrendForce. “ASE graduall... » read more

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