A New Approach For Sensor Design


Pawel Malinowski, program manager at imec, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss what's changing in sensor technology and why. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. SE: What's next for sensor technology? Malinowski: We are trying to find a new way of making image sensors because we want to get out of the limitations of silicon photodiodes. Silicon is a perfect materi... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Jesse Allen, Karen Heyman, and Liz Allan More than 1 billion generative AI smartphones are expected be shipped during 2024 to 2027, reports Counterpoint. The share of GenAI smartphones will be 4% of the market in 2023 and is likely to double in 2024, with Samsung capturing half the market, followed by Chinese OEMs. By 2027, GenAI smartphones could account for 40% of the market. Global ... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Dec 18


New technical papers added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library this week. [table id=176 /] More ReadingTechnical Paper Library home » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Jesse Allen, Gregory Haley, and Liz Allan Synopsys acquired Imperas, pushing further into the RISC-V world with Imperas' virtual platform technology for verifying and emulating processors. Synopsys has been building up its RISC-V portfolio, starting with ARC-V processor IP and a full suite of tools introduced last month. The first high-NA EUV R&D center in the U.S. will be built at... » read more

A Framework For Improving Current Defect Inspection Techniques For Advanced Nodes


A technical paper titled “Improved Defect Detection and Classification Method for Advanced IC Nodes by Using Slicing Aided Hyper Inference with Refinement Strategy” was published by researchers at Ghent University, imec, and SCREEN SPE. Abstract: "In semiconductor manufacturing, lithography has often been the manufacturing step defining the smallest possible pattern dimensions. In recent ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Jesse Allen, Karen Heyman, and Liz Allan Japan's Rapidus and the University of Tokyo are teaming up with France's Leti to meet its previously announced mass production goal of 2nm chips by 2027, and chips in the 1nm range in the 2030s. Rapidus was formed in 2022 with the support of eight Japanese companies — Sony, Kioxia, Denso, NEC, NTT, SoftBank, Toyota, and Mitsubishi's banking arm, ... » read more

Increasing AI Energy Efficiency With Compute In Memory


Skyrocketing AI compute workloads and fixed power budgets are forcing chip and system architects to take a much harder look at compute in memory (CIM), which until recently was considered little more than a science project. CIM solves two problems. First, it takes more energy to move data back and forth between memory and processor than to actually process it. And second, there is so much da... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Jesse Allen, Gregory Haley, and Liz Allan Bosch, Infineon, and NXP were cleared in Germany to each acquire 10% of the European Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (ESMC), established by TSMC, solidifying the supply chain against future shortages, particularly for automotive chips. “ESMC intends to build and operate another large semiconductor factory in Dresden, in which the three Europ... » read more

Rethinking Design, Workflow For 3D


In the 3D world, where NAND has hundreds of layers and packages come in intricate stacks, fresh graduates and veteran engineers alike are being confronted with design challenges that require a rethinking of both classic designs and traditional workflows, but without breaking the laws of physics. “There are pockets of things that have been on 3D for quite some time,” said Kenneth Larson, ... » read more

Gearing Up For Hybrid Bonding


Hybrid bonding is becoming the preferred approach to making heterogeneous integration work, as the semiconductor industry shifts its focus from 2D scaling to 3D scaling. By stacking chiplets vertically in direct wafer-to-wafer bonds, chipmakers can leapfrog attainable interconnection pitch from 35µm in copper micro-bumps to 10µm or less. That reduces signal delay to negligible levels and e... » read more

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