More Data, More Redundant Interconnects


The proliferation of AI dramatically increases the amount of data that needs to be processed, stored, and moved, accelerating the aging of signal paths through which that data travels and forcing chipmakers to build more redundancy into the interconnects. In the past, nearly all redundant data paths were contained within a planar chip using a relatively thick silicon substrate. But as chipma... » read more

Identifying Sources Of Silent Data Corruption


Silent data errors are raising concerns in large data centers, where they can propagate through systems and wreak havoc on long-duration programs like AI training runs. SDEs, also called silent data corruption, are technically rare. But with many thousands of servers, which contain millions of processors running at high utilization rates, these damaging events become common in large fleets. ... » read more

Who Is Most Likely To Link Financial And Manufacturing Data?


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss which companies have the most to gain from linking financial data with manufacturing data analytics platforms with Dieter Rathei, CEO of DR Yield; Jon Holt, senior director of product management at PDF Solutions, Alex Burlak, vice president of advanced analytics and test at proteanTecs; and Dirk de Vries, technical program ma... » read more

Need For Speed Drives Targeted Testing


As packaging complexity increases and nodes shrink, defect detection becomes significantly more difficult. Engineers must contend with subtle variations introduced during fabrication and assembly without sacrificing throughput. New material stacks degrade signal-to-noise ratios, which makes metrology more difficult. At the same time, inspection systems face a more nuanced challenge — how t... » read more

Secure Handling Of Financial Data In Manufacturing


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the advantages associated with linking financial data with manufacturing data analytic platforms, real security challenges and the best uses for AI/ML methods, with Dieter Rathei, CEO of DR Yield; Jon Holt, senior director of product management at PDF Solutions, Alex Burlak, vice president of advanced analytics and test at p... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


McKinsey issued a new report on the state of the chemical supply chain for semiconductors in the U.S., citing potential shortages of high-purity materials such as tungsten, aluminum and copper, lack of access to CMP slurries and photoresists for EUV, and rising competition for high-k precursors that can fetch higher prices outside of the U.S. CSIS weighed in on the U.S. goverment's recent ... » read more

Chip Failures: Prevention And Responses Over Time


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the causes of chip failures, how to respond to them, and how that can change over time, with Steve Pateras, vice president of marketing and business development at Synopsys; Noam Brousard, vice president of solutions engineering at proteanTecs; Harry Foster, chief verification scientist at Siemens EDA; and Jerome Toublanc, hi... » read more

What’s Changing In Outlier Detection


Commonly used outlier detection approaches, such as parts average testing or determining whether a die is good based upon other dies in the immediate neighborhood, are falling short in advanced packages and SoCs. Some devices may pass tests and still fail in the field. In the past, this was solved by adding margin into designs, but that margin now takes too big a bite out of performance and pow... » read more

Cutting IC Manufacturing Costs By Combining Data


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the benefits of incorporating financial data into fab floor decision-making, including what kind of cost data is most useful, with Dieter Rathei, CEO of DR Yield; Jon Holt, senior director of product management at PDF Solutions, Alex Burlak, vice president of advanced analytics and test at proteanTecs; and Dirk de Vries, techni... » read more

Failure To Launch


Failure analysis (FA) is an essential step for achieving sufficient yield in semiconductor manufacturing, but it’s struggling to keep pace with smaller dimensions, advanced packaging, and new power delivery architectures. All of these developments make defects harder to find and more expensive to fix, which impacts the reliability of chips and systems. Traditional failure analysis techniqu... » read more

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