Blog Review: July 2

By Ed Sperling - 02 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 0

Mentor’s Nazita Saye has reservations about driverless cars. Sometimes it’s actually fun to drive—and sometimes it isn’t. Cadence’s Brian Fuller is a bit more optimistic about driverless cars. He says that from the standpoint of safety, efficiency and environment, autonomous vehicles will be a big step forward—if and when some critical problems are solved. And along the same... » read more

How Much Multipatterning?

By Ed Sperling - 19 Jun, 2014 - Comments: 2

The latest consensus among litho experts is that extreme ultraviolet (EUV) will appear in the market sometime in coming months in a commercially viable form. The only question is the degree of commercially viability, and what it will actually cost. While some debate lingers about whether EUV will ever get going, the general feeling is that enough progress has been made recently to make it work.... » read more

The Bumpy Road To FinFETs

By Mark LaPedus - 15 May, 2014 - Comments: 2

The shift from planar transistors to finFETs is a major inflection point in the IC industry. FinFETs are expected to enable higher performance chips at lower voltages. And the next-generation transistor technology also could allow the industry to extend CMOS to the 10nm node and perhaps beyond. But as it turns out, finFET technology is also harder to master than previously thought. For exam... » read more

Self-Aligned Double Patterning, Part One

By David Abercrombie - 15 May, 2014 - Comments: 0

I’m sure most of you have seen a Rorschach test ink blot (Figure 1). Psychiatrists ask the subjects to tell them what they “see” in the ink blot. The answers are used to characterize the respondent’s personality and emotional functioning. I am never sure if I would feel more uncertain being the psychiatrist asking the question, or the subject trying to decide what to say, given there ar... » read more

Tech Talk: Multipatterning, Take Two

By Brian Bailey - 31 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 0

Mentor Graphics' David Abercrombie continues with his whiteboard talk about coloring with advanced lithography, including what goes wrong and how to fix it. [youtube vid=HCBtvHCcbf4] » read more

Directed Self-Assembly Gains Momentum

By Mark LaPedus - 20 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 0

At last year’s SPIE Advanced Lithography symposium, directed self-assembly (DSA) grabbed the spotlight as chipmakers provided the first glimpse of their initial work and results with the technology. The results were stunning, thereby propelling DSA from a curiosity item to a possible patterning solution for next-generation devices. Last year, in fact, GlobalFoundries, IBM, Intel and Sams... » read more

When Order Matters

By David Abercrombie - 20 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 0

Do you brush your teeth before dinner? Put on your shoes before going to bed? Iron your clothes before you wash them? Okay, forget that last one. No one irons clothes anymore…do they? Anyway, my point is, if you want to achieve the best results from a process, order can be really important. And so it is with double patterning (DP) error debugging. As I’ve discussed, there are many types ... » read more

EUV Reaches A Crossroads

By Mark LaPedus - 20 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 3

[gettech id="31045" comment="EUV"] (EUV) [getkc id="80" comment="lithography"] is at a crossroads. 2014 represents a critical year for the technology. In fact, it may answer a pressing question about EUV: Does it work or not? It’s too early to make that determination right now, but there are more uncertainties than ever for the oft-delayed technology. Originally aimed for the 65nm node in... » read more

One-on-One: Naoya Hayashi

By Mark LaPedus - 20 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the current and future challenges in the photomask industry with Naoya Hayashi, research fellow at Dai Nippon Printing (DNP). SE: What are the big challenges for the photomask industry today? Hayashi: There are several challenges. Most of the challenges involve mask complexity. It is also quite difficult to handle the mask data, because it is ... » read more

What Goes Around Comes Around: Moore’s Law At 10nm And Beyond

By Greg Yeric - 13 Feb, 2014 - Comments: 2

Modified by Greg Yeric from original by Eric Fischer Gordon Moore penned his famous observation in an era when the people developing the process were also the people designing the circuits. Over time, things got more complicated and work specialization set in, but all was well in the world for many years as the fabs kept delivering on Moore’s Law. Yes, designers had to come up with lot... » read more

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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

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

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

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