Chip Industry Week In Review


The Malaysian government signed a deal with Arm to kickstart a chip design ecosystem. Until now, Malaysia has focused on packaging and test. Adding chip design represents a major change in focus. The country will pay SoftBank $250 million over 10 years for Arm’s chip design IP and train 10,000 engineers. Global chip sales reached $56 billion in January, up nearly 18% from the same period i... » read more

Wearable Connectivity, AI Enable New Use Cases


The sensing and processing technology used in smart phones, watches, and rings is starting to be being deployed in a wide variety of wearable devices, ranging from those that fill the gap between sports and med tech, to haptic devices to assist the visually impaired and AR/VR glasses. Emerging applications include payment, building, and factory wearables. Most of these devices process signal... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Intel said its new fab in Licking County, Ohio will be delayed due to financial struggles and a need to align chip production with market demand, reported the Columbus Dispatch. Construction is now estimated to be completed in 2030, with operations to start in 2030 or 2031. The company said it already has invested $3.7 billion locally. Apple plans to invest more than $500 billion in the U.S... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Feb. 25


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=408 /] Find all technical papers here. » read more

Interconnects Approach Tipping Point


As leading devices move to next generation nanosheets for logic, their interconnections are getting squeezed past the point where they can deliver low resistance pathways. The 1nm (10Å) node will have 20nm pitch and larger metal lines, but the interconnect stack already consumes a third of device power and accounts for 75% of the chip's RC delay. Changing this dynamic requires a superior co... » read more

EUV’s Future Looks Even Brighter


The rapidly increasing demand for advanced-node chips to support everything-AI is putting pressure on the industry's ability to meet demand. The need for cutting-edge semiconductors is accelerating in applications ranging from hyperscale data centers powering large language models to edge AI in smartphones, IoT devices, and autonomous systems. But manufacturing those chips relies heavily on ... » read more

Material Properties of Si/SiGe Multi-layer Stacks For CFETs (Imec, Ghent U, et al.)


A new technical paper titled "Epitaxial Si/SiGe Multi-Stacks: From Stacked Nano-Sheet to Fork-Sheet and CFET Devices" was published by researchers at Imec and Ghent University, et al. Abstract "After a short description of the evolution of metal-oxide-semiconductor device architectures and the corresponding requirements on epitaxial growth processes, the manuscript describes the material pr... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Worldwide silicon wafer shipments declined nearly 2.7% to 12,266 million square inches in 2024, with wafer revenue contracting 6.5% to $11.5 billion, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group. CSIS released a new report, “Critical Minerals and the Future of the U.S. Economy,” with detailed analysis and policy recommendations for building a secure mineral supply chain for semicond... » read more

Med Tech Morphs Into Consumer Wearables


Doctors have been using advanced technology for years, but the growing trend is for consumers to use devices at home and have direct access to their data. Watches and rings that were once primarily used for counting steps or registering sleep patterns can now read blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen, body temperature, and other early signs of illness. Meanwhile, various patches are under d... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Chinese startup DeepSeek rattled the tech world and U.S. stock market with claims it spent just $5.6 million on compute power for its AI model compared to its billion-dollar rivals in the U.S. The announcement raised questions about U.S. investment strategies in AI infrastructure and led to an initial $600 billion selloff of NVIDIA stock. Since its launch, DeepSeek reportedly was hit by malicio... » read more

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