Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive, mobility Qualcomm completed its acquisition of Arriver Business from SSW Partners. Arriver’s Driver Assistance, Computer Vision, and Drive Policy assets will become part of the Snapdragon Ride Platform. SSW Partners, a New York-based investment partnership, has acquired all shares in Veoneer, retaining its Tier-1 supplier and integrator businesses. Hyundai Motor Group gave Inf... » read more

Research Bits: April 5


Creating qubits in bulk Researchers from Intel and QuTech, an institute of the Delft University of Technology and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), built a qubit using standard semiconductor manufacturing facilities. The qubit is based on the spin of single electrons that are captured in a silicon nanoscale device, which resembles conventional transistors. ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


The U.S. Senate approved the 2022 America COMPETES act, which has big ramifications for the chip industry. The bill now heads to the House for further reconciliation. If approved, it would provide more than $50 billion in U.S. subsidies for semiconductor chip manufacturing. The SIAC (Semiconductor In America Coalition) urged Congress to act promptly to achieve a bipartisan compromise soon and o... » read more

Qubits made by advanced semiconductor manufacturing


Abstract: "Full-scale quantum computers require the integration of millions of qubits, and the potential of using industrial semiconductor manufacturing to meet this need has driven the development of quantum computing in silicon quantum dots. However, fabrication has so far relied on electron-beam lithography and, with a few exceptions, conventional lift-off processes that suffer from low yie... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Worldwide fab equipment spending for front-end manufacturing is expected to hit $107 billion this year, an 18% year-over-year increase, according to SEMI’s latest World Fab Forecast report. “Crossing the $100 billion mark in spending on global fab equipment for the first time is a historic milestone for the semiconductor industry,” said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. Investme... » read more

Planning EDA’s Next Steps


Anirudh Devgan, Cadence's new CEO, and the recipient of the Phil Kaufman Award in December, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about what's next in EDA, the underlying technology and business challenges and changes, and new markets that are unfolding for floor-planning, verification, CFD, and advanced packaging. SE: Where does EDA need to improve? Devgan: We have made it much... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers, OEMs Intel continues to build more fabs. First, the company announced fabs in Arizona and then Ohio. Now, Intel plans to invest up to €80 billion in the European Union over the next decade. As part of the effort, Intel plans to build two semiconductor fabs in Magdeburg, Germany. Construction is expected to begin in the first half of 2023 and production planned to come online in 2... » read more

Extending Copper Interconnects To 2nm


Transistor scaling is reaching a tipping point at 3nm, where nanosheet FETs will likely replace finFETs to meet performance, power, area, and cost (PPAC) goals. A significant architectural change is similarly being evaluated for copper interconnects at 2nm, a move that would reconfigure the way power is delivered to transistors. This approach relies on so-called buried power rails (BPRs) and... » read more

Chiplets Enter The Supercomputer Race


Several entities from various nations are racing each other to deliver and deploy chiplet-based exascale supercomputers, a new class of systems that are 1,000x faster than today’s supercomputers. The latest exascale supercomputer CPU and GPU designs mix and match complex dies in advanced packages, adding a new level of flexibility and customization for supercomputers. For years, various na... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs Apple has rolled out its most powerful processor, dubbed the M1 Ultra, a multi-die chip that incorporates the company's new packaging technology. The M1 Ultra is incorporated in Apple’s new Mac Studio desktop. M1 Ultra features a 20-core CPU, a 64-core GPU, and a 32-core Neural Engine. The M1 Ultra also features UltraFusion, Apple’s new packaging architecture. M1 Ult... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →