Big Changes In Materials And Processes For IC Manufacturing

By Ed Sperling And Laura Peters - 21 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 3

Rama Puligadda, CTO at Brewer Science, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about a broad set of changes in semiconductor manufacturing, packaging, and materials, and how that will affect reliability, processes, and equipment across the supply chain. SE: What role do sacrificial materials play in semiconductor manufacturing, and how is that changing at new process nodes? Puliga... » read more

Driving Toward A Sustainable Future

By Mary Kate Joyce - 14 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

While the automotive industry has been focused on developing innovative electric vehicle (EV) designs for years, there is a new sense of urgency today. Worldwide sales of EVs are increasing quickly1, growing by 46% in 2020 and by 160% in the first half of 2021. Consumer demand is an important factor, but equally important are government mandates. In 2021, the European Union introduced strict... » read more

Silicon Lifecycle Management’s Growing Impact On IC Reliability

By Ed Sperling - 12 Apr, 2022 - Comments: 0

Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about silicon lifecycle management, how it's expanding and changing, and where the problems are, with Prashant Goteti, principal engineer at Intel; Rob Aitken, R&D fellow at Arm; Zoe Conroy, principal hardware engineer at Cisco; Subhasish Mitra, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University; a... » read more

Mitigating Electronics Reliability Concerns During The Global Parts Shortage Crisis

By Jon Kordell - 10 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 0

The global parts shortage crisis has led to major disruptions to OEMs in the automotive, consumer electronics, and healthcare industries. To maintain production, many companies have been forced to rely on brokers to source the required parts, generating uncertainty in the quality of parts received. Additionally, some companies have had no choice but to replace previously used components with al... » read more

Robots Become More Useful In Factories

By John Koon - 10 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 0

Most people associate factory automation with large robotic machines, such as those that weld automobile chassis on assembly lines. But as prices drop and technology improves, robots are being deployed for smaller and more varied tasks, and they are getting better at all of them. Inside of factories, robots can significantly improve output, consistency, and reliability. They can work around ... » read more

Auto Chipmakers Dig Down To 10ppb

By Anne Meixner - 08 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 0

How do engineers deliver 10 defective parts per billion (Dppb) to auto makers if they only screen 1 million parts per year? Answer: By comprehending failure mechanisms and proactively screening for them. Modern automobiles contain nearly 1,000 ICs that must perform over the vehicle’s life (15 years). This drives quality expectations ever higher. While 10 Dppm used to be a solid benchmark, ... » read more

HBM, Nanosheet FETs Drive X-ray Fab Use

By Laura Peters - 08 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 0

Paul Ryan, vice president and general manager of Bruker’s X-ray Business, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss the movement of x-ray metrology into manufacturing to better control nanosheet film stacks and solder bump quality. SE: Where are you seeing the greatest growth right now, and what are the critical drivers for your technology from the application side? Ryan: One b... » read more

Assuring Reliable Processor Performance At Scale

By Uzi Baruch - 08 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 0

In today’s data center environment, resilience is key. Cloud providers are built on as-a-service business models, where uptime is critical to ensure their customers’ business continuity. Reputation and competitiveness require service at extremely high performance, low power, and increasing functionality, with zero tolerance for unplanned downtime or errors. If you’re a hyperscaler, o... » read more

Higher Creepage And Clearance Make For More Reliable Systems

By Jaeeul Yeon - 03 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 1

Electrical and electronic applications must be designed to ensure human safety, as well as systems reliability from high-voltage conditions. Thus, the power semiconductors used must also fulfill these safety and distance standards set by organizations such as Underwriter Laboratories (UL) or the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Even though the TO247 package has been widely us... » read more

Why Traceability Matters

By Ed Sperling - 02 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 0

More heterogeneous and increasingly dense chip designs make it much harder to stay on track with initial specifications. Paul Graykowski, senior technical marketing manager at Arteris IP, talks about matching requirements to the design, the impact of ECOs and other last-minute changes, and best practices for managing revisions. » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer

New AI Processors Architectures Balance Speed With Efficiency

Hot Chips 24: Large language models ratchet up pressure for sustainable computing and heterogeneous integration; data management becomes key differentiator.