Gearing Up For Hybrid Bonding


Hybrid bonding is becoming the preferred approach to making heterogeneous integration work, as the semiconductor industry shifts its focus from 2D scaling to 3D scaling. By stacking chiplets vertically in direct wafer-to-wafer bonds, chipmakers can leapfrog attainable interconnection pitch from 35µm in copper micro-bumps to 10µm or less. That reduces signal delay to negligible levels and e... » read more

The Impact Of Channel Hole Profiles On Advanced 3D NAND Structures


In a two-tier 3D NAND structure, the upper and lower channel hole profile can be different, and this combination of different profiles leads to different top-down visible areas. The visible area is the key metric to determine whether the bottom SONO layer can be punched through and ensure that the bit cells connect to the common source line. Performing channel hole profile splits on a silicon w... » read more

Chip Industry Talent Shortage Drives Academic Partnerships


Universities around the world are forming partnerships with semiconductor companies and governments to help fill open and future positions, to keep curricula current and relevant, and to update and expand skills for working engineers. Talent shortages repeatedly have been cited as the number one challenge for the chip industry. Behind those concerns are several key drivers, and many more dom... » read more

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

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