Design And Measurement Requirements For Short Flow Test Arrays To Characterize Emerging Memories


Emerging non-volatile memories are becoming increasingly attractive for embedded and storage-class applications. Among the development challenges of Back-End integrated memory cells are long learning cycle and high wafer cost. We propose a short-flow based characterization of Memory Arrays using a Cross Point Array approach. A detail analysis of design requirements and testability confirms feas... » read more

Data Becomes Key For Next-Gen Chips


Data has become vital to understanding the useful life of a semiconductor — and the knowledge gleaned is key to staying competitive beyond Moore’s Law. What's changed is a growing reliance earlier in the design cycle on multiple sources of data, including some from further right in the design-through-manufacturing flow. While this holistic approach may seem logical enough, the semiconduc... » read more

Chip Reliability Vs. Cost


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the cost, reliability and security with Simon Segars, CEO of Arm; Joseph Sawicki, executive vice president of IC EDA at Mentor, a Siemens Business; Raik Brinkmann, CEO of OneSpin Solutions; Babak Taheri, CEO of Silvaco; John Kibarian, CEO of PDF Solutions; and Prakash Narain, CEO of Real Intent. What follows are excerpts of that virtual conversation... » read more

2020 CEO Outlook


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the semiconductor industry's outlook and what's changing with Simon Segars, CEO of Arm; Joseph Sawicki, executive vice president of IC EDA at Mentor, a Siemens Business; Raik Brinkmann, CEO of OneSpin Solutions; Babak Taheri, CEO of Silvaco; John Kibarian, CEO of PDF Solutions; and Prakash Narain, CEO of Real Intent. The conversation was part of the... » read more

Using ML In Manufacturing


How to prevent early life failures by applying machine learning to different use cases, and how to interpret models for different tradeoffs on reliability. Jeff David, vice president of AI solutions at PDF Solutions, digs down into how to utilize data to improve reliability. » read more

Using Fab Sensors To Reduce Auto Defects


The semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem has begun collaborating on ways to effectively use wafer data to meet the stringent quality and reliability requirements for automotive ICs. Silicon manufacturing companies are now leveraging equipment and inspection monitors to proactively identify impactful defects prior to electrical test. Using machine learning techniques, they combine the monitor ... » read more

IEEE S3S 2019 — Characterization Challenges And Solutions For FDSOI Technologies


FDSOI technology has been proposed as an alternative device scaling path which offers benefits of tunable, superior electrostatics transistor while maintaining simplicity of planar integration. New device type and integration elements brought up challenges in device and process characterization and monitoring across the whole lifecycle of the technology. This paper presents successful applicati... » read more

Yield And Reliability Challenges At 7nm And Below


Layout Design Rules have been scaled very aggressively to enable the 7nm technology node without EUV. As a result, achieving acceptable performance and yield in High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) has become an extremely challenging task. Systematic yield and parametric variabilities have become quite significant. Moreover, due to overlay tolerance requirements and diminishing process windows, reli... » read more

BiST Vs. In-Circuit Sensors


Monitoring the health of a chip post-manufacturing, including how it is aging and performing over time, is becoming much more important as ICs make their way into safety-critical applications such as the central brain in automobiles. Faced with longer lifespans and a growing body of functional safety rules, systems vendors need to be able to predict when a part will fail. But as sensing auto... » read more

New Uses For Manufacturing Data


The semiconductor industry is becoming more reliant on data analytics to ensure that a chip will work as expected over its projected lifetime, but that data is frequently inconsistent or incomplete, and some of the most useful data is being hoarded by companies for competitive reasons. The volume of data is rising at each new process node, where there are simply more things to keep track of,... » read more

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