Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fabs Intel has announced plans for an initial investment of more than $20 billion in the construction of two new leading-edge fabs in Ohio. Planning for the first two factories will start immediately, with construction expected to begin late in 2022. Production is expected to come online in 2025. As part of the announcement, Air Products, Applied Materials, Lam Research and Ultra Clean Technol... » read more

200mm Shortages May Persist For Years


A surge in demand for chips at more mature process nodes is causing shortages for both 200mm foundry capacity and 200mm equipment, and it shows no signs of letting up. In fact, even with new capacity coming on line this year, shortages are likely to persist for years, driving up prices and forcing significant changes across the semiconductor supply chain. Shortages for both 200mm foundry cap... » read more

The Effect Of Pattern Loading On BEOL Yield And Reliability During Chemical Mechanical Planarization


Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) is required during semiconductor processing of many memory and logic devices. CMP is used to create planar surfaces and achieve uniform layer thickness during semiconductor manufacturing, and to optimize the device topology prior to the next processing step. Unfortunately, the surface of a semiconductor device is not uniform after CMP, due to different re... » read more

Semiconductor Industry Faces Stiff Competition For Talent


For decades, the semiconductor industry has been defined by our ability to innovate. Each time we’ve been faced with seemingly insurmountable technological challenges, we have invented innovative approaches and methods to solve them, and in doing so, we’ve helped to transform how the world works, plays, learns, and connects. Today, we are again faced with a critical new challenge: the gl... » read more

Design Technology Co-Optimization


Rising complexity is making it increasingly difficult to optimize chips for yield and reliability. David Fried, vice president of computational products at Lam Research, examines the benefits of automated rules to manage the relationship between layout and design requirements on one side, and process flows and rules/checks on the other. Benefits include reduced margin, shortened time to market,... » read more

Inspecting And Testing GaN Power Semis


As demand for new automotive battery electric vehicles (BEVs) heats up, automakers are looking for solutions to meet strict zero-defect goals in power semiconductors. Gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) wide-bandgap power semiconductors offer automakers a range of new EV solutions, but questions remain on how to meet the stringent quality goals of the automotive industry. Among t... » read more

Expanding Advanced Packaging Production In The U.S.


The United States is taking the first steps toward bringing larger-scale IC packaging production capabilities back to the U.S. as supply chain concerns and trade tensions grow. The U.S. is among the leaders in developing packages, especially new and advanced forms of the technology that promise to shake up the semiconductor landscape. And while the U.S. has several packaging vendors, North A... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 5


Cadence's Paul McLellan listens in on the challenges Tesla sees in manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles at scale and the types of battery chemistries it are currently using. Synopsys' Mark Kahan finds out the launch steps involved with the James Webb Space Telescope and the role of optical design software in creating the new instruments for Near IR and Mid IR sensing. Siemens' An... » read more

2021 Top Tech Videos


While the world’s chip shortage dominated the 2021 headlines, the semiconductor industry blazed new trails with the increased electrification of cars, focused AI applications, improving power/performance, better utilization of data deluges, dealing with design challenges in advanced nodes and much more focus on chip security. Semiconductor Engineering’s Tech Talks reflected these focus a... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers TSMC has introduced another version of its 4nm process technology. The process, called N4X, is tailored for high-performance computing products. Recently, TSMC introduced another 4nm process, called N4P, which is an enhanced version of its 5nm technology. N4X is also an enhanced version of its 5nm technology. N4X, however, offers a performance boost of up to 15% over TSMC’s N5 pro... » read more

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