Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fab tools Lam Research has rolled out a new suite of selective etch products for use in developing next-generation technologies, such as gate-all-around (GAA) transistors. In the fab, selective etch helps chipmakers with complex structures. These etch tools provide selective and precision etching without modifying or causing damage to other critical material layers. Composed of three new... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Nvidia's proposed acquisition of Arm is officially off. The deal faced significant pushback from regulatory agencies in the UK, USA, and Europe, which feared it would reduce or limit competition in areas like data center. Nvidia indicated it would continue working with Arm, and it will retain a 20-year Arm license. (SoftBank will retain the $1.25 billion prepaid by Nvidia.) SoftBank said it wil... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Pervasive computing, IoT and 5G Infineon added to its NFC (near-field communications) IP by acquiring NFC patent portfolios from France Brevets and Verimatrix. “With this acquisition, Infineon further strengthens its IP and technology portfolio, specifically in our leadership markets for security and connectivity for the IoT,” said Thomas Rosteck, president of Infineon’s Connected Secure... » read more

Design Challenges Increasing For Mixed-Die Packages


The entire semiconductor ecosystem is starting to tackle a long list of technology and business changes that will be needed to continue scaling beyond Moore's Law, making heterogeneous combinations of die easier, cheaper, and more predictable. There are a number of benefits to mixing die and putting them together in a modular way. From a design standpoint, this approach provides access to th... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy The Government of Quebec and IBM have announced a new partnership to establish Quebec as a technology hub in the development of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and high-performance computing. The two entities have formed the Quebec-IBM Discovery Accelerator. The new technology hub aims to focus on developing new projects, collaborations, and skills-... » read more

ML Focus Shifting Toward Software


New machine-learning (ML) architectures continue to garner a huge amount of attention as the race continues to provide the most effective acceleration architectures for the cloud and the edge, but attention is starting to shift from the hardware to the software tools. The big question now is whether a software abstraction eventually will win out over hardware details in determining who the f... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 1


Fab equipment cybersecurity In a major step to help provide security in the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain, SEMI has published the first cybersecurity specifications and standards for fab equipment. For some time, the semiconductor industry has been developing new cybersecurity standards for fab equipment in an effort to protect systems from potential cyberattacks, viruses, and IP... » read more

Next-Gen 3D Chip/Packaging Race Begins


The first wave of chips is hitting the market using a technology called hybrid bonding, setting the stage for a new and competitive era of 3D-based chip products and advanced packages. AMD is the first vendor to unveil chips using copper hybrid bonding, an advanced die-stacking technology that enables next-generation 3D-like devices and packages. Hybrid bonding stacks and connects chips usin... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy As reported, the United States is in dire need of more fab capacity as well as packaging plants. The U.S. took a big step in an effort to solve the problem. The U.S. House of Representatives this week introduced the America Competes Act of 2022. The bill includes funding for the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America (CHIPS) Act, which is earmarked... » read more

Greener Design Verification


Chip designs are optimized for lower cost, better performance, or lower power. The same cannot be said about verification, where today very little effort is spent on reducing execution cost, run time, or power consumption. Admittedly, one is a per unit cost while the other is a development cost, but could the industry be doing more to make development greener? It can take days for regression... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →