Chip Industry Week In Review


Worldwide silicon wafer shipments declined nearly 2.7% to 12,266 million square inches in 2024, with wafer revenue contracting 6.5% to $11.5 billion, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group. CSIS released a new report, “Critical Minerals and the Future of the U.S. Economy,” with detailed analysis and policy recommendations for building a secure mineral supply chain for semicond... » read more

Med Tech Morphs Into Consumer Wearables


Doctors have been using advanced technology for years, but the growing trend is for consumers to use devices at home and have direct access to their data. Watches and rings that were once primarily used for counting steps or registering sleep patterns can now read blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen, body temperature, and other early signs of illness. Meanwhile, various patches are under d... » read more

Global IC Fabs And Facilities Report: 2024


The chip industry made significant capital investments this year to build new fabs and facilities or expand existing premises. A number of sites were dedicated to SiC, GaN, DRAM, HBM, along with packaging and assembly by OSATs, and essential gases, chemicals, and other components. More than a dozen R&D centers were also established for 8-inch wafers, EUV, and advanced packaging. Investments... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Jan. 20


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=398 /] Find all technical papers here. » read more

Transformation Of Polarons As Tellurene Becomes Thinner


A new research paper titled "Thickness-dependent polaron crossover in tellurene" was published by researchers from Rice University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, MIT, Argonne National Laboratory, ORNL, Purdue University, and Stanford University. Abstract "Polarons, quasiparticles from electron-phonon coupling, are crucial for material properties including high-temperature supercond... » read more

AI Accelerators for Homomorphic Encryption Workloads


A new technical paper titled "Leveraging ASIC AI Chips for Homomorphic Encryption" was published by researchers at Georgia Tech, MIT, Google and Cornell University. Abstract: "Cloud-based services are making the outsourcing of sensitive client data increasingly common. Although homomorphic encryption (HE) offers strong privacy guarantee, it requires substantially more resources than compu... » read more

Research Bits: Jan. 13


High-temp electrochemical memory Researchers from the University of Michigan and Sandia National Laboratory propose a nonvolatile electrochemical memory that can store and rewrite information at temperatures over 1100°F (600°C), enabling it to continue working in environments as extreme as the surface of Venus. Instead of transporting electrons, the memory moves oxygen ions between layere... » read more

Research Bits: Dec. 24


Growing multilayered chips Researchers from MIT, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, and University of Texas at Dallas developed a method to fabricate a multilayered chip with alternating layers of semiconducting material grown directly on top of each other. The approach enables high-performance transistors and memory and logic elements on any random crystalline ... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Dec. 23


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=394 /] Find all technical papers here. » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Updated for 12/20 government fundings and 12/23 for China trade investigation announcements. President Biden announced a trade investigation into "China's unfair trade practices in the semiconductor sector."  The announcement stated "PRC semiconductors often enter the U.S. market as a component of finished goods. This Section 301 investigation will examine a broad range of the PRC’s non-m... » read more

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