What’s Important For IoT—Power, Performance Or Integration?


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Steve Hardin, director of product development for AT&T's IoT Solutions Group; Wayne Dai, CEO of VeriSilicon; John Koeter, vice president of the Solutions Group at [getentity id="22035" e_name="Synopsys"]; and Rajeev Rajan, vice president for IoT at [getentity id="22819" comment="GlobalFoundries"]. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. To vie... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Numbers IC Insights predicts TowerJazz and SMIC sales will jump this year, with the total pure-play foundry revenue forecast to grow 9%. That compares with 6% growth last year. TSMC is expected to shrink slightly to 58% market share, with GlobalFoundries staying flat at 11%. UMC will remain in third place in the rankings, followed by SMIC and TowerJazz. SEMI’s book-to-bill ratio jumped to... » read more

Stepping Back From Scaling


Architectures, packaging and software are becoming core areas for semiconductor research and development, setting the stage for a series of shifts that will impact a large swath of the semiconductor industry. While there is still demand from the largest chipmakers for increased density at the next process node, the underlying economics for foundries, equipment vendors and IP developers are f... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Fab tool and material vendors Applied Materials reported its results for the third quarter ended July 31. Net sales of $2.82 billion were up 15% sequentially and up 13% year over year. "AMAT reported impressive upside in July quarter and guided October quarter well ahead of expectations as the company is seeing sizable tailwinds across: 1) WFE uptick driven by foundry and NAND orders; 2) stron... » read more

Mask Maker Worries Grow


Leading-edge photomask makers face a multitude of challenges as they migrate from the 14nm node and beyond. Mask making is becoming more challenging and expensive at each node on at least two fronts. On one front, mask makers must continue to invest in the development of traditional optical masks at advanced nodes. On another front, several photomask vendors are preparing for the possible ra... » read more

What Transistors Will Look Like At 5nm


Chipmakers are currently ramping up 16nm/14nm finFET processes, with 10nm and 7nm just around the corner. The industry also is working on 5nm. TSMC hopes to deliver a 5nm process by 2020. GlobalFoundries, Intel and Samsung are doing R&D for that node. But 5nm technology presents a multitude of unknowns and challenges. For one thing, the exact timing and specs of 5nm remain cloudy. The... » read more

Optical Metrology Solutions For 10nm Films Process Control Challenges


By Sridhar Mahendrakar (a), Alok Vaida (a), Kartik Venkataraman (b), Michael Lenahan (a), Steven Seipp (a), Fang Fanga (a), Shweta Saxena (a), Dawei Hu (b), Nam Hee Yoon (b), Da Song (b), Janay Camp (b), Zhou Ren (b). [a: GlobalFoundries; b:KLA-Tencor] Controlling thickness and composition of gate stack layers in logic and memory devices is critical to ensure transistor performance meets r... » read more

Preparing For 5G


If you like 4G LTE, you’re going to love 5G. The next-generation wireless communications technology will offer faster data transmission speeds and lower latency, providing the processing power to drive augmented-reality and virtual-reality applications for mobile devices and dedicated headsets. There is a caveat, though. The world needs to develop a consensus on what the 5G spectrum wil... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers The wearables market has taken another hit. Intel has issued a safety recall for a smartwatch line from its Basis Science subsidiary. "We are issuing this safety recall of the Basis Peak watch because the watch can overheat, which could result in burns or blisters on the skin surface. It is important that you stop using your watch immediately and return it. Although we are stopping ... » read more

What’s Important For IoT—Power, Performance Or Integration?


Semiconductor Engineering sat down with Steve Hardin, director of product development for AT&T's IoT Solutions Group; Wayne Dai, CEO of VeriSilicon; John Koeter, vice president of the Solutions Group at [getentity id="22035" e_name="Synopsys"]; and Rajeev Rajan, vice president for IoT at [getentity id="22819" comment="GlobalFoundries"]. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE:... » read more

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