Repositioning For A Changing IC Market


Sailesh Chittipeddi, executive vice president at Renesas, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about how changes in end markets are shifting demand for technology. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Renesas has acquired a number of companies over the past several years. What's the goal? Chittipeddi: The goal very simply is to create an industry leading solutio... » read more

Thinning of GaN-on-GaN HEMTs With A Laser Slicing Technique


New technical paper "Laser slice thinning of GaN-on-GaN high electron mobility transistors" from researchers at Nagoya University, Hamamatsu Photonics, and National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba. Abstract "As a newly developed technique to slice GaN substrates, which are currently very expensive, with less loss, we previously reported a laser slicing technique in this journal. In... » read more

Making More Reliable And More Efficient Auto ICs


Sam Geha, executive vice president of memory solutions at Infineon Technologies, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about automotive chips, supply chain issues, and integration challenges. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: How do you build an automotive chip that will work in any environment? Geha: The automotive market is, of course, one of the most demand... » read more

A Full-GaN Solution For High Power Density Chargers And Adapters


Due to continuous demand for high power density, USB-C fast chargers’ switching frequencies need to be increased to reduce the size of the transformers and the filter components. Emerging technologies based on Wide Band Gap (WBG) semiconductor materials enable new approaches to increase power density. At high switching frequencies, GaN HEMTs for synchronous rectifier (SR) switches have the ad... » read more

GaN ICs Wanted for Power, EV Markets


Circuits built with discrete GaN components may get the job done, but fully integrated GaN circuits remain the ultimate goal because they would offer many of the same advantages as integrated silicon circuits. These benefits include lower cost as the circuit footprint is scaled, and reduced parasitic resistance and capacitance with shorter interconnect runs. In addition, improved device perf... » read more

Silicon-based Power Semis Face Challenges


Suppliers of power semiconductors continue to develop and ship devices based on traditional silicon technology, but silicon is nearing its limits and faces increased competition from technologies like GaN and SiC. In response, the industry is finding ways to extend traditional silicon-based power devices. Chipmakers are eking out more performance and prolonging the technology, at least in th... » read more

More Manufacturing Issues, More Testing


Douglas Lefever, CEO of Advantest America, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about changes in test, the impact of advanced packaging, and business changes that are happening across the flow. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. SE: What are the big changes ahead in test? Lefever: It's less about inflection points and more like moving from algebra to calculus in the ... » read more

Review on Driving Circuits for Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Switching Devices for Mid- to High-Power Applications


Abstract: "Wide-bandgap (WBG) material-based switching devices such as gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) are considered very promising candidates for replacing conventional silicon (Si) MOSFETs for various advanced power conversion applications, mainly because of their capabi... » read more

200mm Shortages May Persist For Years


A surge in demand for chips at more mature process nodes is causing shortages for both 200mm foundry capacity and 200mm equipment, and it shows no signs of letting up. In fact, even with new capacity coming on line this year, shortages are likely to persist for years, driving up prices and forcing significant changes across the semiconductor supply chain. Shortages for both 200mm foundry cap... » read more

Inspecting And Testing GaN Power Semis


As demand for new automotive battery electric vehicles (BEVs) heats up, automakers are looking for solutions to meet strict zero-defect goals in power semiconductors. Gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) wide-bandgap power semiconductors offer automakers a range of new EV solutions, but questions remain on how to meet the stringent quality goals of the automotive industry. Among t... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →