Chip Industry Week In Review


By Susan Rambo, Liz Allan, and Gregory Haley. TSMC rolled out the second version of its 3Dblox, which creates an infrastructure for stacking chiplets and other necessary components in a package, along with a standardized way of achieving that. Two novel features are chiplet mirroring for design reuse, and what is basically sandbox for power and thermal analysis of different design elements. ... » read more

When And Where To Implement AI/ML In Fabs


Deciphering complex interactions between variables is where machine learning and deep learning shine, but figuring out exactly how ML-based systems will be most useful is the job of engineers. The challenge is in pairing their domain expertise with available ML tools to maximize the value of both. This depends on sufficient quantities of good data, highly optimized algorithms, and proper tra... » read more

Securing Chip Manufacturing Against Growing Cyber Threats


Semiconductor manufacturers are wrestling with how to secure a highly specialized and diverse global supply chain, particularly as the value of their IP and their dependence upon software increases — along with the sophistication and resources of the attackers. Where methodologies and standards do exist for security, they often are confusing, cumbersome, and incomplete. There are plenty of... » read more

Chip Industry’s Technical Paper Roundup: August 1


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=39 /] More Reading Technical Paper Library home » read more

Demonstrating The Capabilities Of Virtual Wafer Process Modeling And Virtual Metrology


A technical paper titled “Review of virtual wafer process modeling and metrology for advanced technology development” was published by researchers at Coventor Inc., Lam Research. Abstract: "Semiconductor logic and memory technology development continues to push the limits of process complexity and cost, especially as the industry migrates to the 5 nm node and beyond. Optimization of the p... » read more

High-NA Lithography Starting To Take Shape


The future of semiconductor technology is often viewed through the lenses of photolithography equipment, which continues to offer better resolution for future process nodes despite an almost perpetual barrage of highly challenging technological issues. For years, lithography was viewed as the primary manufacturing-related gating factor to continued device scaling, beset by multiple delays th... » read more

Goals of Going Green


The chip industry is stepping up efforts to be seen as environmentally friendly, driven by growing pressure from customers and government regulations. Some manufacturers have been addressing sustainability challenges for more than a decade, but they are becoming more aggressive in their efforts, while others are joining them. A review of sustainability reports across the semiconductor indust... » read more

Improving Gate All Around Transistor Performance Using Virtual Process Window Exploration


As transistor sizes shrink, short channel effects make it more difficult for transistor gates to turn a transistor ON and OFF [1]. One method to overcome this problem is to move away from planar transistor architectures toward 3D devices. Gate-all-around (GAA) architectures are an example of this type of 3D device [2]. In a GAA transistor, the gate oxide surrounds the channel in all directions.... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


TSMC is delaying construction on its $40 billion fab in Arizona due to a shortage of U.S. semiconductor workers and higher-than-expected expenses, Bloomberg reported. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) urged the U.S. government to refrain from further restrictions on semiconductor technology to China “until it engages more extensively with industry and experts to assess the impac... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Google was hit with a class action suit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, alleging data scraping from millions of users without consent and violation of copyright laws to train and develop its AI products. Last month, the same law firm filed a suit against OpenAI for ChatGPT. Despite calling for a pause on development of advanced AI in March, Elon Musk launched xAI, a new company focu... » read more

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