Full Metrology Solutions For Advanced RF With Picosecond Ultrasonic Metrology


Picosecond Ultrasonics (PULSE Technology) has been widely used in thin metal film metrology because of its unique advantages, such as being a rapid, non-contact, non-destructive technology and its capabilities for simultaneous multiple layer measurement. Measuring velocity and thickness simultaneously for transparent and semi-transparent films offers a lot of potential for not only monitoring ... » read more

Variation Threat In Advanced Nodes, Packages Grows


Variation is becoming a much bigger and more complex problem for chipmakers as they push to the next process nodes or into increasingly dense advanced packages, raising concerns about the functionality and reliability of individual devices, and even entire systems. In the past, almost all concerns about variation focused on the manufacturing process. What printed on a piece of silicon didn't... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive Austin, Texas-based automotive startup Uhnder raised $45 million in Series C funding for its digital radar-on-chip. Telechips, a fabless semiconductor company that works on automotive SoCs, is using Arm’s IP to design its Dolphin5 SoC for ADAS (advanced drive assistance systems) and digital cockpits with in-vehicle infotainment (IVI). Dolphin5 will include the Arm’s Mali-G78A... » read more

3D NAND’s Vertical Scaling Race


3D NAND suppliers are accelerating their efforts to move to the next technology nodes in a race against growing competition, but all of these vendors are facing an assortment of new business, manufacturing, and cost challenges. Two suppliers, Micron and SK Hynix, recently leapfrogged the competition and have taken the scaling race lead in 3D NAND. But Samsung and the Kioxia-Western Digital (... » read more

200mm Demand Surges


A surge in demand for various chips is causing shortages for select 200mm foundry capacity as well as 200mm fab equipment, and it shows no signs of abating in 2021. Foundry customers will face a shortfall of 200mm capacity at select foundries at least in the first half of 2021, and perhaps beyond. Those customers will need to plan ahead to ensure they obtain enough 200mm capacity in 2021. Ot... » read more

Digital Test Bulks Up – Or Down


Large digital integrated circuits are becoming harder to test in a time- and cost-efficient manner. AI chips, in particular, have tiled architectures that are putting pressure on older testing strategies due to the volume of test vectors required. In some cases, these chips are so large that they exceed reticle size, requiring them to be stitched together. New testing efficiencies are needed... » read more

Infrastructure Impacts Data Analytics


Semiconductor data analytics relies upon timely, error-free data from the manufacturing processes, but the IT infrastructure investment and engineering effort needed to deliver that data is, expensive, enormous, and still growing. The volume of data has ballooned at all points of data generation as equipment makers add more sensors into their tools, and as monitors are embedded into the chip... » read more

Adaptive Shot Technology To Address Severe Lithography Challenges For Advanced FOPLP


Fan-out wafer level packaging (FOWLP) is a popular new packaging technology that allows the user to increase I/O in a smaller IC size than fan-in wafer level packaging. Market drivers such as 5G, IoT, mobile and AI will all use this technology. According to Yole Développement’s analysis, the fan-out packaging market size will increase to $3 billion in 2022 from $2.44 hundred million in 2014,... » read more

Defect Challenges Grow For IC Packaging


Several vendors are ramping up new inspection equipment based on infrared, optical, and X-ray technologies in an effort to reduce defects in current and future IC packages. While all of these technologies are necessary, they also are complementary. No one tool can meet all defect inspection requirements. As a result, packaging vendors may need to buy more and different tools. For years, p... » read more

The Next Advanced Packages


Packaging houses are readying their next-generation advanced IC packages, paving the way toward new and innovative system-level chip designs. These packages include new versions of 2.5D/3D technologies, chiplets, fan-out and even wafer-scale packaging. A given package type may include several variations. For example, vendors are developing new fan-out packages using wafers and panels. One is... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →