NAND ATE Market Gets Testy

By Mark LaPedus - 06 Feb, 2014 - Comments: 0

The NAND flash memory market is undergoing big changes. As planar NAND moves further down the 1xnm node regime, suppliers are ramping up devices with new cell structures, interfaces and other features. And on top of that, 3D NAND is beginning to appear in the market. The next-generation NAND devices will enable new applications in the mobile and enterprise markets, but the chips themselves p... » read more

Internet Of Things Hype: The Sound And The Fury

By Kurt Shuler - 30 Jan, 2014 - Comments: 2

“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” —William Shakespeare, Macbeth Bill was referring to life in the above quote, but he may as well have been referring to the hype surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT) and how it is going to create a new era of innovation in the semiconductor industry. I’m skeptical, and I will tell you why. We’ve bee... » read more

Mixed Signals Seen For Fab Tool Industry

By Mark LaPedus - 14 Jan, 2014 - Comments: 2

After a slight downturn in 2013, the semiconductor equipment market is expected to rebound and see solid growth in 2014, according to forecasters at SEMI’s Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) at Half Moon Bay, Calif. Gartner, IC Insights and VLSI Research separately projected strong growth in the fab tool industry in 2014. But on the downside, the number of large fab tool buyers continues to... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing And Design

By Mark LaPedus - 20 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

Wearable computing is one of the hottest topics being discussed today. Angela McIntyre, research director at Gartner, said digital health and fitness will be among the hottest segments in the arena. Don't look now, but ASML Holding has delayed its 450mm tool programs. "As for 450, ASML has paused the development of 450mm lithography systems, both EUV and 193, until customer demand and the ti... » read more

Can Intel Dethrone The Foundry Giants?

By Mark LaPedus - 12 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 3

The leading-edge foundry business isn’t for the faint of heart. It requires deep pockets and sound technology to keep pace in the chip-scaling race. And despite pouring billions of dollars into new fabs and processes, foundries are competing for fewer customers at each node. Given the difficult business conditions, only a handful of vendors can afford to compete in the high-end foundry bus... » read more

Non-Visual Defect Inspection: The Tech of Tomorrow?

By Jeff Chappell - 12 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

Remember when it first became obvious that the semiconductor manufacturing industry was going to expect lithography to resolve features smaller than the wavelength of light used in the litho tools themselves? Thanks to techniques such as the use of phase shift photomasks, sub-wavelength lithography is standard in chip fabs today. It might even be viewed as “old hat,” although still an ex... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing & Design

By Mark LaPedus - 06 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

A new study reveals that a majority of Americans are making some costly miscalculations regarding the performance of their existing PCs. The survey reveals that Americans lack financial savvy when faced with slow computers. Germany’s Merck KGaA, a pharmaceutical, chemical and life science company, announced an agreement with AZ Electronic Materials, under which Merck KGaA would acquire AZ.... » read more

Big Changes Rock Global Smartphone Market

By Jeff Chappell - 25 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

BANGKOK — One of the many draws for Western travelers here in Thailand and throughout much of Asia, including China, is the availability of cheap consumer electronics. Unfortunately many of these electronic goods — little-known off-brands mimicking better-known counterparts, or white-label devices being passed off as name-brand products to unsuspecting consumers — typically are technologi... » read more

Gartner Recommends Network-on-Chip (NoC) Technology For SoC Design

By Kurt Shuler - 21 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

In their latest Hype Cycle for Semiconductors and Electronics Technologies report, Gartner Research has taken the bold step of recommending that all enterprises involved in advanced SoC design should seriously evaluate network-on-chip (NoC) technology based interconnect fabric IP: “The technology has continued to receive a good amount of publicity along with continued adoption by leading S... » read more

Rethinking Old Sayings

By Jon McDonald - 21 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

One of my favorite quotes from Gary Smith is a few years old: “It’s the software, stupid!” That statement was made way back in 2006. While it was, and in some ways still is, very illustrative, I believe it also points to one extreme in the back and forth between focusing on hardware then software to differentiate our electronic systems. At the point in time Gary made the statement that... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer

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