Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


It's earnings season, and despite widespread reports of capacity issues and shortages, the chip industry turned in relatively solid results across the board. Intel exceeded January guidance for Q1, reporting first-quarter GAAP revenue of $18.4 billion, a 7% year-over-year decrease, and a 1% decrease year-over-year on non-GAAP basis. Record revenue was achieved in the Network and Edge Group, ... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive, mobility DENSO Corporation and UMC’s Japanese subsidiary United Semiconductor Japan Co., Ltd. (USJC) are collaborating on power semiconductors production for the automotive market at USJC’s 300mm fab. USJC will install an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) line at its wafer fab. Renesas Electronics uncorked an integrated automotive ECU Virtualization Platform for devel... » read more

BEOL Integration For The 1.5nm Node And Beyond


As we approach the 1.5nm node and beyond, new BEOL device integration challenges will be presented. These challenges include the need for smaller metal pitches, along with support for new process flows. Process modifications to improve RC performance, reduce edge placement error, and enable challenging manufacturing processes will all be required. To address these challenges, we investigated th... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Onshoring and the supply chain Efforts to patch up supply chain weaknesses by moving more manufacturing onshore in the United States and Europe are generating a lot of buzz. Morris Chang, TMSC's founder, described those moves as "a very expensive exercise in futility," during an interview with the Brookings Institution and Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that it is like... » read more

Photomask Shortages Grow At Mature Nodes


A surge in demand for chips at mature nodes, coupled with aging photomask-making equipment at those geometries, are causing significant concern across the supply chain. These issues began to surface only recently, but they are particularly worrisome for photomasks, which are critical for chip production. Manufacturing capacity is especially tight for photomasks at 28nm and above, driving up ... » read more

Equipment Perspective At U.S. Senate Hearing On Chipmaking


In March, Lam Research President and CEO Tim Archer testified before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The hearing examined a variety of issues including the correlation between American competitiveness and semiconductors, the impact of vulnerabilities in semiconductor supply chains and the importance of CHIPS legislation within the U.S. Innovation a... » read more

Yield Enhancement By Virtual Fabrication


This paper provides an example of yield enhancement using virtual fabrication. A 6 transistors based static random access memory example on 7nm node technology was used in this case study. Yield loss caused by via contact-metal edge placement error was modeled and analyzed. The results show that yield can be enhanced from 48.4% to 99.0% through process window optimization and improved specifica... » read more

Blog Review: April 13


Synopsys' Scott Durrant, Priyank Shukla, Mitch Heins, and Jigesh Patel provide a brief overview of the history of copper and optical interconnects used in data centers, the limitations of existing interconnect solutions, and the future of co-packaged optics. Siemens' Trey Reeser finds that it's not only necessary for semiconductor companies to address the safety and security of products for ... » read more

Strategies For Faster Yield Ramps On 5nm Chips


Leading chipmakers TSMC and Samsung are producing 5nm devices in high volume production and TSMC is forging ahead with plans for first 3nm silicon by year end. But to meet such aggressive targets, engineers must identify defects and ramp yield faster than before. Getting a handle on EUV stochastic defects — non-repeating patterning defects such as microbridges, broken lines, or missing con... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Deals AMD plans to purchase cloud startup Pensando for about US $1.9 billion. In a presentation at the SEMI ISS conference this week, AMD CTO Mark Papermaster described Pensando's technology as a "highly programmable packet-processing engine that allows you to speed up systems designed for the data center." Intel, Micron, Analog Devices and MITRE Engenuity formed an alliance to accelerate c... » read more

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