Blog Review: March 11

By Jesse Allen - 11 Mar, 2015 - Comments: 0

How are sensors like a scallop's eyes? Rambus' Patrick Gill guides you through day in the life of the mollusk to show how inspiration for IoT was found in the sea. Cadence's Dimitry Pavlovsky discusses some of the intricacies associated with creating VIP for processor interconnect systems such as CHI, and how other tools are necessary to complete the task. Following Google's warning of a ... » read more

Blog Review: Feb. 25

By Jesse Allen - 25 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

Synopsys' Aron Pratt continues his series on SystemVerilog interfaces and strategies for dealing with parameterization. There are workarounds to the problems it introduces, but they come with a price. Mentor's John Day digs into Volvo's plans for autonomous autos. There are a lot of speedbumps ahead, and while it's easy to build a self-driving concept vehicle, actually getting on the road is... » read more

3D NAND Market Heats Up

By Mark LaPedus - 19 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 4

After some delays and uncertainty in past years, the 3D NAND market is finally heating up. In 2013 and 2014, Samsung was the only vendor participating in the 3D NAND market. Most other suppliers were supposed to ship 3D NAND devices in volumes last year, but vendors pushed out their production dates for various business and technical reasons. Going into 2015, [getentity id="22865" e_nam... » read more

One-On-One: Dave Hemker

By Mark LaPedus - 19 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss process technology, transistor trends and other topics with Dave Hemker, senior vice president and chief technology officer at [getentity id="22820" comment="LAM Research"]. SE: On the technology front, the IC industry is undergoing some new and dramatic changes. What are some of those changes? Hemker: We focus on what we call the inflections.... » read more

Still Waiting For III-V Chips

By Mark LaPedus - 19 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

For years, chipmakers have been searching for an alternative material to replace traditional silicon in the channel for advanced CMOS devices at 7nm and beyond. There’s a good reason, too: At 7nm, silicon will likely run out of steam in the channel. Until recently, chipmakers were counting on III-V materials for the channels, at least for NFET. Compared to silicon, III-V materials provide ... » read more

Blog Review: Feb. 11

By Jesse Allen - 11 Feb, 2015 - Comments: 0

Ansys' Bill Vandermark flags the top five engineering articles of the week. Check out the one about the latest attempt at cold fusion, which left researchers hiding behind a blast shield. The solar-powered car named Stella drove away with the prestigious "Best Technology Achievement" award at the 8th annual Crunchies Awards this week. NXP's Maurice Geraets sounds like a proud parent – with... » read more

Next Channel Materials?

By Mark LaPedus - 22 Jan, 2015 - Comments: 0

Chipmakers are making a giant leap from planar transistors to [getkc id="185" kc_name="finFETs"]. Initially, [getentity id="22846" e_name="Intel"] moved into finFET production at 22nm and is now ramping up its second-generation finFETs at 14nm. And the other foundries will enter the finFET fray at 16nm/14nm. So what’s next? Chipmakers will likely extend the finFET architecture to both 10nm... » read more

Unraveling The Mysteries At IEDM

By Mark LaPedus - 19 Dec, 2014 - Comments: 0

In some respects, the 2014 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) was no different than past events. The event, held this week in San Francisco, included the usual and dizzying array of tutorials, sessions, papers and panels. On the leading-edge CMOS front, for example, the topics included [getkc id="82" kc_name="2.5D"]/[getkc id="42" kc_name="3D IC"] chips, III-V materials, [getkc ... » read more

Fab Tool Biz Faces Challenges In 2015

By Mark LaPedus - 11 Dec, 2014 - Comments: 0

After a slight downturn in 2013, the semiconductor equipment industry rebounded and experienced a solid upturn in 2014. The recovery was primarily driven by tool spending in the foundry and [getkc id="93" kc_name="DRAM"]sectors. Another big and ongoing story continued to unfold in 2014. In late 2013, [getentity id="22817" e_name="Applied Materials"] announced a definitive agreement to acquir... » read more

Re-Engineering The FinFET

By Mark LaPedus - 13 Nov, 2014 - Comments: 0

The semiconductor industry is still in the early stages of the [getkc id="185" kc_name="finFET"] era, but the [getkc id="26" kc_name="transistor"] technology already is undergoing a dramatic change. The fins themselves are getting a makeover. In the first-generation finFETs, the fins were relatively short and tapered. In the next wave, the fins are expected to get taller, thinner and more re... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
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