tag: PDF Solutions

Controlling IC Manufacturing Processes For Yield
By Ed Sperling - 24 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 0

Equipment and tools vendors are starting to focus on data as a means of improving yield, adding more sensors and analysis capabilities into the manufacturing flow to circumvent problems in real time. How much this will impact the cost of developing complex chips at leading-edge nodes, and in 2.5D and 3D-IC packages, remains to be seen. But the race to both generate data during manufacturing ... » read more

New Approaches To Security
By Ed Sperling - 09 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 0

Different approaches are emerging to identify suspicious behavior and shut down potential breaches before they have a chance to do serious damage. This is becoming particularly important in markets where safety is an issue, and in AI and edge devices where the rapid movement of data is essential. These methods are a significant departure from the traditional way of securing devices through l... » read more

Domain Expertise Becoming Essential For Analytics
By Ed Sperling - 12 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 0

Sensors are being added into everything, from end devices to the equipment used to make those sensors, but the data being generated has limited or no value unless it's accompanied by domain expertise. There are two main problems. One is how and where to process the vast amount of data being generated. Chip and system architectures are being revamped to pre-process more of that data closer to... » read more

Using Sensor Data To Improve Yield And Uptime
By Ed Sperling - 21 Feb, 2019 - Comments: 2

Semiconductor equipment vendors are starting to add more sensors into their tools in an effort to improve fab uptime and wafer yield, and to reduce cost of ownership and chip failures. Massive amounts of data gleaned from those tools is expected to provide far more detail than in the past about multiple types and sources of variation, including when and where that variation occurred and how,... » read more

Variation Issues Grow Wider And Deeper
By Ed Sperling - 24 Jan, 2019 - Comments: 0

Variation is becoming more problematic as chips become increasingly heterogeneous and as they are used in new applications and different locations, sparking concerns about how to solve these issues and what the full impact will be. In the past, variation in semiconductors was considered a foundry issue, typically at the most advanced process node, and largely ignored by most companies. New p... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test
By Mark LaPedus - 18 Jan, 2019 - Comments: 1

Fab tools and materials Applied Materials is expected to remain the world’s largest semiconductor equipment supplier in terms of projected sales for 2018, according to a preliminary forecast of the rankings from VLSI Research. Applied will have $14 billion in sales in 2018, according to the firm. Applied is the leader in terms of overall projected sales in 2018, followed in order by ASM... » read more

Blog Review: Dec. 12
By Jesse Allen - 12 Dec, 2018 - Comments: 0

Mentor's Harry Foster checks out how much time and effort is spent on verification of FPGAs and points to the increasing demand for verification engineers. Cadence's Paul McLellan digs into IC Insights' year-end report to see how some of the top semiconductor companies stack up. Synopsys' Taylor Armerding warns that air gaps, a valuable barrier against cyberattacks, are disappearing from ... » read more

Some Chipmakers Sidestep Scaling, Others Hedge
By Ed Sperling - 15 Nov, 2018 - Comments: 0

The rising cost of developing chips at 7nm coupled with the reduced benefits of scaling have pried open the floodgates for a variety of options involving new materials, architectures and packaging that either were ignored or not fully developed in the past. Some of these approaches are closely tied to new markets, such as assisted and autonomous vehicles, robotics and 5G. Others involve new ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test
By Mark LaPedus - 09 Nov, 2018 - Comments: 0

Trade SEMI has voiced support and encouragement for trade discussions between U.S. President Donald Trump and the People's Republic of China President Xi Jinping. The talks are planned for Dec. 1 during the G20 Summit in Argentina. SEMI expressed hope for a deal and offered principles beneficial to the microelectronics supply chain. Recent tariffs and trade tensions, on top of rumored expor... » read more

Carmakers To Chipmakers: Where’s The Data?
By Ed Sperling And Susan Rambo - 24 Oct, 2018 - Comments: 0

The integration of electronics into increasingly autonomous vehicles isn't going nearly as smoothly as the marketing literature suggests. In fact, it could take years before some of these discrepancies are resolved. The push toward full autonomy certainly hasn't slowed down, but carmakers and the electronics industry are approaching that goal from very different vantage points. Carmakers and... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

  • Sponsors

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2013-2024 SMG   |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy