tag: imec

Next Challenge: Parts Per Quadrillion
By Ed Sperling - 29 Jul, 2020 - Comments: 0

Requirements for purity of the materials used in semiconductor manufacturing are being pushed to unprecedented — and increasingly unprovable — levels as demand for reliability in chips over increasingly longer lifetimes continues to rise. And while this may seem like a remote problem for many parts of the supply chain, it can affect everything from availability of materials needed to make t... » read more

The Race To Much More Advanced Packaging
By Mark LaPedus - 23 Jul, 2020 - Comments: 2

Momentum is building for copper hybrid bonding, a technology that could pave the way toward next-generation 2.5D and 3D packages. Foundries, equipment vendors, R&D organizations and others are developing copper hybrid bonding, which is a process that stacks and bonds dies using copper-to-copper interconnects in advanced packages. Still in R&D, hybrid bonding for packaging provides mo... » read more

Semicon West Day One/Two
By Mark LaPedus - 22 Jul, 2020 - Comments: 0

For years, the semiconductor and equipment industry has congregated at the annual Semicon West trade show in San Francisco. It’s an event to get an update on the latest equipment, test and packaging technologies. It’s also a good way to meet with people who you haven’t seen in a year, if not longer. It’s a great way to get a pulse on the industry. Needless to say, Semicon is a vir... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: July 21
By Mark LaPedus - 21 Jul, 2020 - Comments: 1

Intel’s next-gen MRAM At the recent 2020 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, Intel presented a paper on a CMOS-compatible spin-orbit torque MRAM (SOT-MRAM) device. Still in R&D, SOT-MRAM is a next-generation MRAM designed to replace SRAM. Generally, processors integrate a CPU, SRAM and a variety of other functions. SRAM stores instructions that are rapidly needed by the processo... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: July 14
By Mark LaPedus - 14 Jul, 2020 - Comments: 0

Complementary FETs At the recent 2020 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, Imec presented a paper on a 3D complementary field-effect transistor (CFET) made on 300mm wafers. As a demonstration vehicle, Imec showed a CFET based on a 14nm process. Ideally, though, CFETs are next-generation transistors that are targeted for the 1nm node in the future. On the transistor front, chipmaker... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test
By Mark LaPedus - 10 Jul, 2020 - Comments: 0

Market research After years of falling demand, the PC market is back. The second quarter of 2020 ended well for the traditional PC market, including desktops, notebooks, and workstations. Global PC shipments jumped 11.2% year-over-year reaching a total of 72.3 million units, according to IDC. As restrictions around the world tightened in the first few weeks of the quarter, demand for notebo... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing
By SE Staff - 10 Jul, 2020 - Comments: 0

IoT Arm is proposing to transfer its two IoT divisions to SoftBank Group Corp., which will own and operate them under new entities. The two IoT Services Group (ISG) businesses are IoT Platform and Treasure Data. Arm intends to focus more on its IP roadmap in data and compute, once the transfer becomes finalized. It is subject to more board review. “Arm believes there are great opportunities ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: June 30
By Mark LaPedus - 30 Jun, 2020 - Comments: 0

1μm pitch wafer bonding At the recent IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), Imec presented a paper on a fine-pitch hybrid wafer-to-wafer bonding technology for heterogeneous integration. Imec described a way to enable hybrid bond pitches down to 1μm using a novel Cu/SiCN (copper/silicon-carbon-nitrogen) surface topography. Today, the industry is developing or shi... » read more

China Speeds Up Advanced Chip Development
By Mark LaPedus - 22 Jun, 2020 - Comments: 18

China is accelerating its efforts to advance its domestic semiconductor industry, amid ongoing trade tensions with the West, in hopes of becoming more self-sufficient. The country is still behind in IC technology and is nowhere close to being self-reliant, but it is making noticeable progress. Until recently, China’s domestic chipmakers were stuck with mature foundry processes with no pres... » read more

The Next Advanced Packages
By Mark LaPedus - 18 Jun, 2020 - Comments: 4

Packaging houses are readying their next-generation advanced IC packages, paving the way toward new and innovative system-level chip designs. These packages include new versions of 2.5D/3D technologies, chiplets, fan-out and even wafer-scale packaging. A given package type may include several variations. For example, vendors are developing new fan-out packages using wafers and panels. One is... » read more

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