Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Materials A major setback has been dealt to the United States’ efforts to develop rare earths. The U.S. is attempting to develop its own supply of rare earths, hoping to reduce its reliance on China. China controls nearly 90% of the world’s rare earths, which are used in magnets and various electronic systems. In April, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awarded two U.S.-based firms, Lyn... » read more

Introducing Nanosheets Into Complementary-Field Effect Transistors (CFETs)


In our November 2019 blog [1], we discussed using virtual fabrication (SEMulator3D) to benchmark different process integration options for Complementary-FET (CFET) fabrication. CFET is a CMOS architecture that was proposed by imec in 2018 [2]. This architecture contains p- and n-MOSFET structures built on top of each other, instead of having them located side-by-side. In our previous blog, we r... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 28


Gate-all-around reliability The 2020 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS) will kick off this week, this time as a virtual event. IRPS is a conference that focuses on the latest research in microelectronics reliability. The event starts off with keynotes from Infineon, Intel and Texas Instruments. IRPS also involves a multitude of papers and presentations. On the logi... » read more

Is This The Year Of The Chiplet?


Customizing chips by choosing pre-characterized — and most likely hardened IP — from a menu of options appears to be gaining ground. It's rare to go to a conference these days without hearing chiplets being mentioned. At a time when end markets are splintering and more designs are unique, chiplets are viewed as a way to rapidly build a device using exactly what is required for a particul... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fab tools, chips and technologies What happened at the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) this week? The annual three-day conference of executives gave the year’s first comprehensive outlook of the global electronics manufacturing industry. Click here to see the details. CyberOptics has unveiled its new WaferSense Auto Resistance Sensor (ARS) and its CyberSpectrum software. The produc... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Jan. 7


Beyond 5G chips At the recent IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), NTT and the Tokyo Institute of Technology presented a paper on a technology that could enable high-speed wireless devices beyond the 5G standard. Researchers have devised a 300GHz wireless transceiver (TRx) that supports a data rate of more than 100Gb/s. The device is based on a technology called indium phosph... » 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

Week In Review: IoT, Automotive, Security


Automotive/Mobility Synopsys and Porsche Consulting, a management consultancy that grew out of Porsche’s automotive expertise, have collaborated on a framework for accelerating the development of automotive SoCs, using automotive IP. The process includes Synopsys' Triple Shift-Left — a which uses virtual prototyping and automotive IP to test software and hardware in the design stage — an... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 16


Imec-Leti alliance At the recent IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), Imec and Leti announced plans to collaborate in select areas. The two R&D organizations plan to collaborate in two areas—artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing. Imec and Leti have been separately working on AI technologies based on various next-generation memory architectures. Both entitie... » read more

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