One-On-One: Mark Bohr


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss process technology, transistor trends, chip-packaging and other topics with Mark Bohr, a senior fellow and director of process architecture and integration at Intel. SE: Intel recently introduced chips based on its new 14nm process. Can you briefly describe the 14nm process? Bohr: It’s our second-generation, tri-gate technology. So it has al... » read more

Navigating The Used Equipment Market


For years, the used semiconductor equipment market has been an important but obscure part of the IC manufacturing supply chain. In fact, nearly all chipmakers have bought used tools over the years. Buying used equipment is a quick and relatively inexpensive way to fill a particular need in both 200mm and 300mm fabs. But after years of flying under the radar, the used IC equipment market is h... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Front-end fab equipment spending is projected to increase by 20% in 2015 to $42 billion, according to SEMI. In 2015, equipment spending could mark a historical record high, surpassing the previous peak years of 2007 ($39 billion) and 2011 ($40 billion). In 2014, the report predicts growth of approximately 21% for front-end fab equipment spending, for total spending of $34.9 billion. SEMI rep... » read more

Making Chips Run Faster


For all the talk about low power, the real focus of most chipmakers is still performance. The reality is that OEMs might be willing to sacrifice increasing performance for longer battery life, but they will rarely lower performance to reach that goal. This is more obvious for some applications than others. A machine monitor probably isn’t the place where performance will make much of a dif... » read more

Datacenter Power Is Different


With much focus on super low power devices for handhelds and IoT applications, I’m also interested in what’s happening at the seeming other end of the spectrum, in the datacenter. Atrenta CTO Bernard Murphy rightly pointed out that when it comes to power reduction techniques, datacenter power is a different story. He reminded that at a unit-level, a lot has already been done or is underw... » read more

What Happened To Next-Gen Lithography?


Chipmakers continue to march down the process technology curve. Using today’s optical lithography and multiple patterning, the semiconductor industry is scaling its leading-edge devices far beyond what was once considered possible. The question is how far can the industry extend 193nm immersion [getkc id="80" comment="lithography"] and multiple patterning before these technologies become t... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 2


Looking at space dust The first analysis of space dust, collected by a special collector onboard NASA's Stardust mission and sent back to Earth for study in 2006, is more complex in composition and structure than previously thought. Researchers examined the dust using synchrotron light sources from three groups--the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Intel announced two new technologies for foundry customers. One technology, dubbed Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB), is available to 14nm foundry customers. Instead of an expensive silicon interposer with TSVs, a small silicon bridge chip is embedded in the package, enabling high density die-to-die connections only where needed. EMIB eliminates the need for TSVs and specialized int... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Gartner has released a chart, which tracks the “Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies in 2014.” According to the chart, here’s some of the technologies that are still a number of years away from reaching the marketplace: virtual personal assistants; human augmentation; brain-computer interface; quantum computing; smart robots; biochips; smart advisors; autonomous vehicles; and natural-lang... » read more

Ready To Pounce


A series of inflection points at 16/14nm and beyond is having a rather unusual effect on the semiconductor industry. Rather than forge ahead with the next nodes to gain an edge and early lead over rivals—the standard formula for success over the past five decades—the entire supply chain is poised on the edge, waiting for someone to make the first move before they take action. The problem... » read more

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