Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


SPIE At the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference, Lam Research has introduced a new dry resist technology for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Dry resist technology is a new approach to deposit and develop EUV resists. It is a dry deposition technique with alternate compositions and mechanisms. By combining Lam’s deposition and etch process expertise with partnerships with ASML a... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 25


Diamond finFETs HRL Laboratories has made new and significant progress to develop diamond finFETs. HRL, a joint R&D venture between Boeing and General Motors, has developed a new ohmic regrowth technique for diamond FETs. This in turn could pave the way towards commercial diamond FETs. Applications include spacecraft, satellites and systems with extreme temperatures. Still in R&D, diamo... » read more

MOCVD Vendors Eye New Apps


Several equipment makers are developing or ramping up new metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) systems in the market, hoping to capture the next wave of growth applications in the arena. Competition is fierce among the various MOCVD equipment suppliers in the market, namely Aixtron, AMEC and Veeco. In addition, MOCVD equipment suppliers are looking for renewed growth in 2020, but b... » read more

SiC Foundry Business Emerges


Several third-party foundry vendors are entering or expanding their efforts in the silicon carbide (SiC) business amid booming demand for the technology. However, making a significant dent in the market will not be so easy for SiC foundry vendors and their customers. They are facing stiff competition from traditional SiC device vendors such as Cree, Infineon, Rohm and STMicroelectronics. ... » read more

GaN on SiC: The Only Viable Long-Term Solution for 5G


The 5G wave that’s been building for many years will finally come to shore in 2019. Early (but extremely limited) service rollouts will gain much fanfare and the first round of 5G-enabled devices will begin to hit markets. Wider commercial deployments, however, are still off in the distance and will be a slow but growing wave from 2020 to 2025. CCS Insight predicts 1 billion 5G users globally... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Jan. 7


Ferroelectric FET Researchers at Purdue University developed a ferroelectric transistor capable of both processing and storing information. The ferroelectric semiconductor field-effect transistor is made of alpha indium selenide, which overcomes the problem of ferroelectric materials not interfacing well with silicon. “We used a semiconductor that has ferroelectric properties. This way tw... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 31


GaN-on-SOI power semis At the recent IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), Imec and KU Leuven presented a paper on a gallium-nitride (GaN) on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology for use in developing GaN power devices. With GaN-on-SOI technology, researchers have developed a 200-volt GaN power semiconductor device with an integrated driver and fast switching performance. ... » read more

Where Technology Breakthroughs Are Needed


After years of delays, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is finally in production at the 7nm logic node with 5nm in the works. EUV, a next-generation lithography technology, certainly will help chipmakers migrate to the next nodes. But EUV doesn’t solve every problem. Nor does it address all challenges in the semiconductor industry. Not by a long shot. To be sure, the industry needs... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Dec. 23


High mobility transistor Engineers at the University of Delaware created a high-electron mobility transistor, a device that amplifies and controls electrical current, using gallium nitride (GaN) with indium aluminum-nitride as the barrier on a silicon substrate. Among devices of its type, the team says their transistor has record-setting properties, including record low gate leakage current... » read more

RF GaN Gains Steam


Wide-bandgap semiconductors are hot topics these days. One wide-bandgap semi type--silicon carbide (SiC)--is the talk of the town and is gaining steam in electric vehicles and other systems. But let’s not forget about gallium nitride (GaN). GaN, a binary III-V material, has 10 times the breakdown field strength with double the electron mobility than silicon. GaN is used for LEDs, power ... » read more

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