Industry Pushes For Fab Tool Security Standards


The semiconductor industry is developing new cybersecurity standards for fab equipment in an effort to protect systems from potential cyberattacks, viruses, and IP theft. Two new standards are in the works, which are being formulated under the auspices of the SEMI trade group with leadership from chipmakers and others. Led by Intel and Cimetrix, the first standard deals with malware-free equ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Top story NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) have announced a definitive agreement under which NVIDIA will acquire Arm from SBG and the SoftBank Vision Fund in a transaction valued at $40 billion. Market research Here’s the latest fab equipment forecast from VLSI Research: “The semiconductor equipment market has been very resilient in 2020 despite a very challenging macroeconomic ... » read more

New Data Format Boosts Test Analytics


Demand for more and better data for test is driving a major standards effort, paving the way for one of most significant changes in data formats in years. There is good reason for this shift. Data from device testing is becoming a critical element in test program decisions regarding limits and flows. This is true for everything from automotive and medical components to complex, heterogeneous... » read more

Better Inspection, Higher Yield


Wafers can be inspected for large, obvious defects, or for small, subtle ones. The former is referred to as macro-inspection, while the latter is micro-inspection. These processes use different machines with different capital and operating costs, and they might look like competing approaches with different economic returns. In fact, they are complementary tactics that can be balanced within an ... » read more

Silicon Photonics: Automated Wafer-Level Probing And Silicon Photonics


As chip designers are pressed for ever-increasing data rates, the use of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) with infrared photonic signals as a data transfer medium is increasingly finding its way into CMOS silicon-based devices. Termed “silicon photonics” (SiPh), this technology is not only being used to displace traditional electrical interconnects, but also for a broad range of appli... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Market research What’s in store for the IC market in 2020 and 2021? Here’s the latest IC forecasts from IC Insights, Semico, Semiconductor Intelligence, WSTS and others. “We at Semiconductor Intelligence find it difficult to expect much of an increase in the world semiconductor market in 2020. However, the strength of the PC market and the relatively optimistic 3Q 2020 guidance of severa... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


AI on edge Cadence’s Tensilica Vision P6 DSP IP will be in Kneron’s KL720, a 1.4TOPS AI system-on-chip (SoC) targeted for AI of things (AIoT), smart home, smart surveillance, security, robotics and industrial control applications. Arm announced its Arm Cortex-R82, a 64-bit, Linux-capable Cortex-R processor for enterprise and computational storage systems. The processor is designed to pr... » read more

Chiplet Reliability Challenges Ahead


Assembling chips using LEGO-like hard IP is finally beginning to take root, more than two decades after it was first proposed, holding the promise of faster time to market with predictable results and higher yield. But as these systems of chips begin showing up in mission-critical and safety-critical applications, ensuring reliability is proving to be stubbornly difficult. The main driver fo... » read more

5G Brings New Testing Challenges


As 5G nears commercial reality, makers of chips and systems that will support 5G will need to take on the standard burden of characterizing and testing their systems to ensure both performance and regulatory adherence. Millimeter-wave (mmWave) and beamforming capabilities present the biggest testing challenges. “5G is expected to have the extended coverage plus the bandwidth to harness ... » read more

Considerations For 5G Production Test


Like all technology advancements, bringing 5G to market requires an array of supporting tools to ensure the end products meet expectations. It will require significant performance advances in chip technology and manufacturing processes—all the while keeping price/performance at an economically viable level. Earlier this year, FormFactor’s Daniel Bock along with Jeff Damm outlined three c... » read more

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