AI And High-NA EUV At 3/2/1nm


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss lithography and photomask issues with Bryan Kasprowicz, director of technology and strategy and a distinguished member of the technical staff at Photronics; Harry Levinson, principal at HJL Lithography; Noriaki Nakayamada, senior technologist at NuFlare; and Aki Fujimura, chief executive of D2S. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. To vie... » read more

EUV Challenges And Unknowns At 3nm and Below


The chip industry is preparing for the next phase of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography at 3nm and beyond, but the challenges and unknowns continue to pile up. In R&D, vendors are working on an assortment of new EUV technologies, such as scanners, resists, and masks. These will be necessary to reach future process nodes, but they are more complex and expensive than the current EUV pro... » read more

What’s Next In AI, Chips And Masks


Aki Fujimura, chief executive of D2S, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about AI and Moore’s Law, lithography, and photomask technologies. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: In the eBeam Initiative’s recent Luminary Survey, the participants had some interesting observations about the outlook for the photomask market. What were those observations? Fujimur... » read more

Designs Beyond The Reticle Limit


Designs continue to grow in size and complexity, but today they are reaching both physical and economic challenges. These challenges are causing a reversal of the integration trend that has provided much of the performance and power gains over the past couple of decades. The industry, far from giving up, is exploring new ways to enable designs to go beyond the reticle size, which is around 8... » read more

eBeam Initiative Surveys Report Upbeat Photomask Market Outlook


Every year, the eBeam Initiative conducts surveys that provide valuable insight into the key trends that are shaping the semiconductor industry. This year, industry luminaries representing 42 companies from across the semiconductor ecosystem participated in the 2020 eBeam Initiative Luminaries survey. 89% of respondents to the survey predict that photomask (mask) revenues in 2020 will stay the ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Top stories Here's the latest from Reuters: ''The United States has imposed restrictions on exports to China’s biggest chip maker SMIC after concluding there is an 'unacceptable risk' equipment supplied to it could be used for military purposes." What does this all mean? “The press has reported that on Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce placed restrictions on China's largest semicondu... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Aug. 10


EUV mask cleaning process TSMC has developed a new dry-clean technology for photomasks used in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, a move that appears to solve some major problems in the fab. TSMC and Samsung are in production with EUV lithography at advanced nodes, but there are still several challenges with the photomasks and other parts of the technology. Using 13.5nm wavelengths, EUV... » read more

What Machine Learning Can Do In Fabs


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the issues and challenges with machine learning in semiconductor manufacturing with Kurt Ronse, director of the advanced lithography program at Imec; Yudong Hao, senior director of marketing at Onto Innovation; Romain Roux, data scientist at Mycronic; and Aki Fujimura, chief executive of D2S. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. L-R:... » read more

Finding Defects In EUV Masks


Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is finally in production at advanced nodes, but there are still several challenges with the technology, such as EUV mask defects. Defects are unwanted deviations in chips, which can impact yield and performance. They can crop up during the chip manufacturing process, including the production of a mask or photomask, sometimes called a reticle. Fortunately... » read more

Using Digital Twins And DL In Lithography


Leo Pang, chief product officer and executive vice president at D2S, looks at the results of inverse lithography technology at advanced nodes using curvilinear patterns, and how that can be combined with a digital twin and deep learning speed up time to market and reduce cost. » read more

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