tag: metrology

Comprehensive Process Control Solutions For Through-Glass Vias
By Monita Pau - 12 Aug, 2025 - Comments: 0

At some point in our lives, we have dropped a drinking glass or knocked over a glass-blown knickknack, only to watch it hit the floor and shatter into pieces. We learn from any early age that glass is fragile. But if glass is so fragile, why are manufacturers adopting glass core substrates? Good question. And one that comes with a ready answer. Glass is able to meet the new, denser line-s... » read more

Metrology Under Pressure: Detecting Defects in Fine-Pitch Hybrid Bonding
By Gregory Haley - 12 Aug, 2025 - Comments: 1

As advanced packaging pushes deeper into the sub-10µm realm, traditional inspection and metrology systems are being forced to evolve with it. Hybrid bonding, a critical enabler of vertical integration and 3D system performance, relies on exceptionally tight alignment and defect-free bonding surfaces. But as interconnect pitch shrinks, even nanometer-scale variations in height, tilt, or cont... » read more

CMOS 2.0: Layered Logic For The Post-Nanosheet Era
By Gregory Haley - 24 Jul, 2025 - Comments: 0

The semiconductor industry has relied on a simple equation for more than five decades — shrink the transistor, pack more onto every wafer, and watch performance soar as costs plummet. While each new node delivered predictable gains in speed, power efficiency, and density, that formula is rapidly running out of steam. As transistors approach single-digit nanometer processes, manufacturing c... » read more

Using Picosecond Ultrasonic Technology For AI Packages: Part 2
By Cheolkyu Kim - 10 Jul, 2025 - Comments: 0

Heterogeneous integration is a key enabler of today’s AI innovations. By bringing together multiple chips with different functionalities, a.k.a., chiplets, AI devices have been able to achieve tremendous performance gains. However, the heterogeneous integration of advanced packages has its own set of process control obstacles that must be addressed, including new interconnect challenges invol... » read more

How Advanced Packaging Is Reshaping Inspection
By Gregory Haley - 10 Jul, 2025 - Comments: 0

As semiconductor devices continue advancing into more sophisticated packaging schemes, traditional optical inspection technologies are brushing up against physical and computational boundaries. The growing reliance on 2.5D and 3D integration, hybrid bonding, and wafer-level processes has made it much harder to detect defects consistently and early enough to protect yields. While optical insp... » read more

Front-End Technologies Are The New Back-End Tools: Using Picosecond Ultrasonics Technology For AI Packages, Part 1
By Cheolkyu Kim - 10 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

If you are a part of the semiconductor industry or simply someone interested in the field, you have likely heard what has become a common refrain: the back-end of the process is becoming more like the front-end of the process. In other words, the technologies that were once exclusively deployed in the first part of the process are being used to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of ad... » read more

Overlay, Critical Dimension, And Z-Height Metrology Solutions For Advanced Packaging
By Al Gamble - 08 May, 2025 - Comments: 0

The consumer’s thirst for AI-based applications is powering the ever-evolving electronics industry. Applications delivering higher levels of information in human language-like form, smarter at-home gadgets, the ability to receive a medical diagnosis without a doctor’s visit and the convenience of autonomous vehicles are among the applications powering this thirst. To better enable these app... » read more

Why Thin Film Measurements Matter
By Laura Peters - 08 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor devices are becoming thinner and more complex, making thin deposited films even harder to measure and control. With 3nm node devices in production and 2nm nodes ramping toward first-silicon, the importance of precise film measurement is only growing in significance as fabs seek to maintain the performance and reliability of leading-edge devices. Whether it’s the read and writ... » read more

Measuring Multi-Layer Ultra-Thin Critical Films
By Jiangtao Hu - 11 Mar, 2025 - Comments: 0

Artificial intelligence is one of the driving forces in today’s semiconductor industry, with more traditional market drivers like high performance compute and smart phones continuing to play important roles. This situation is unlikely change in the years ahead as chip makers continue their quest to create the most advanced nodes. With 3nm nodes in production and 2nm nodes on the horizon, the ... » read more

Using Test And Metrology Data For Dynamic Process Control
By Gregory Haley - 14 Jan, 2025 - Comments: 0

Advanced packaging is transforming semiconductor manufacturing into a multi-dimensional challenge, blending 2D front-end wafer fabrication with 2.5D/3D assemblies, high-frequency device characterization, and complex yield optimization strategies. These combinations are essential to improving performance and functionality, but they create some thorny issues for which there are no easy fixes. ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

  • Sponsors

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2013-2026 SMG   |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy