New Insights Into IC Process Defectivity


Finding critical defects in manufacturing is becoming more difficult due to tighter design margins, new processes, and shorter process windows. Process marginality and parametric outliers used to be problematic at each new node, but now they are persistent problems at several nodes and in advanced packaging, where there may be a mix of different technologies. In addition, there are more proc... » read more

DRAM Test And Inspection Just Gets Tougher


DRAM manufacturers continue to demand cost-effective solutions for screening and process improvement amid growing concerns over defects and process variability, but meeting that demand is becoming much more difficult with the rollout of faster interfaces and multi-chip packages. DRAM plays a key role in a wide variety of electronic devices, from phones and PCs to ECUs in cars and servers ins... » read more

Addressing Trench Structures And Larger Wafers For Power Devices


Wind power. Rail. Solar energy. And, perhaps most significantly, electric and hybrid vehicles. Together, these four forces are among the major demand drivers for power devices. While silicon (Si) still plays a role in power devices, wide-bandgap compound semiconductors like silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) are particularly well-suited for power devices thanks to their higher e... » read more

Isolating Critical Data In Failure Analysis


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss traceability and the lack of data needed to perform root cause analysis with Frank Chen, director of applications and product management at Bruker Nano Surfaces & Metrology; Mike McIntyre, director of product management in the Enterprise Business Unit at Onto Innovation; Kamran Hakim, ASIC reliability engineer at Teradyne... » read more

Using Smart Data To Boost Semiconductor Reliability


The chip industry is looking to AI and data analytics to improve yield, operational efficiency, and reduce the overall cost of designing and manufacturing complex devices. In fact, SEMI estimates its members could capture more than $60B in revenues associated through smart data use and AI. Getting there, however, requires overcoming a number of persistent obstacles. Smart data utilization is... » read more

Optimizing Metal Film Measurement On IGBT And MOSFET Power Devices With Picosecond Ultrasonic Technology


By Johnny Dai with Cheolkyu Kim and Priya Mukundhan In recent years, power semiconductor applications have expanded from industrial and consumer electronics to renewable energy and electric vehicles. Looking to the future, the most promising power semiconductor devices will be insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) and power metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (power MOSFET) ... » read more

Streamlining Failure Analysis Of Chips


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss how increasing complexity in semiconductor and packaging technology is driving shifts in failure analysis methods, with Frank Chen, director of applications and product management at Bruker Nano Surfaces & Metrology; Mike McIntyre, director of product management in the Enterprise Business Unit at Onto Innovation; Kamran Hak... » 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

Fab And Field Data Transforming Manufacturing Processes


The ability to capture, process, and analyze data in the field is transforming semiconductor metrology and testing, providing invaluable insight into a product's performance in real-time and under real-world conditions and use cases. Historically, data that encapsulates parameters such as power consumption, temperature, voltages, currents, timing, and other characteristics, was confined to d... » read more

The Glass Substrate Question: When Will It Replace Copper Clad Laminate?


"When will glass replace copper clad laminate on advanced IC substrates?" That’s a question many on the heterogeneous integration (HI) side of the semiconductor industry are asking. Unfortunately, the answer is not straightforward. But before we get to answering that, let’s take an advanced IC substrate (AICS) refresher. In other words, how did we get to the point where glass substrat... » read more

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