Chip Industry Week In Review


Deals Marvell acquired Polariton Technologies, a Swiss developer of plasmonics-based silicon photonics devices. Onto Innovation is partnering with Rigaku, combining Onto’s analysis software with Rigaku’s CD-SAXS platform for advanced semiconductor process control. Onto also agreed to acquire a 27% stake in Rigaku for about $710M. Tesla plans to use Intel’s 14A process for its T... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Deals, Funding Intel will join Elon Musk’s Terafab chip manufacturing project alongside Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI. Intel described its role as helping refactor silicon fab technology for a project targeting production of 1 TW/year of compute for AI and robotics applications. Intel and Google are expanding a multi-year collaboration on AI and cloud infrastructure, with Intel Xeon processo... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


War impacts The Iran War's toll on the chip industry is widening. Over 95% of Taiwan's energy is imported, causing the country to secure alternative sources. Korea is also heavily dependent on energy imports from the Middle East. Shortages of key materials are cropping up everywhere. Helium from Qatar, the second largest producer behind the U.S., is constrained by hostilities in the Per... » read more

2D Semiconductors Inch Forward


Key Takeaways: Diffusing oxygen into 2D materials can improve adhesion properties. Channel-last processes can preserve most of the traditional gate-all-around process flow. Dual-gate MoS2 FETs with graphene contacts take advantage of layer transfer methods. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have come a long way since exfoliated flakes were the state of the art, but the... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Disruptions caused by the Iran conflict have taken about one third of the global helium supply off the market, an essential gas for semiconductor manufacturing, reports the World Economic Forum. Other potential impacts for the chip industry include bromine and other chemical shortages, logistical disruptions, and higher energy prices incurred by fabs in Asia. Top Deals IBM and Lam R... » read more

Making Hybrid Bonding Better


Key Takeaways Fab processes are optimizing for cleanliness, planarity, and high bond quality. Nanotwinned copper and SiCN PVD enable lower anneal and deposition temperatures for HBM. A thin, protective layer helps preserve the Cu/dielectric during aggressive processes. The future of semiconductor manufacturing is no longer dependent just on shrinking features. Instead, chipm... » read more

Backside Power Delivery Creates Fab Tool, Thermal Dissipation Barriers


Key Takeaways Backside power delivery reduces routing congestion at the most advanced nodes and offers significant performance improvement options. But it also adds a bunch of new challenges involving via alignment and interconnects. Still, leading-edge foundries are making progress, and all of them plan to offer BPDNs at 2nm and below. Backside power delivery networks deliv... » read more

Why Indium Oxide Chips Are Getting So Much Attention


Key Takeaways Their low leakage is of interest for memory applications, particularly capacitor-less gain cell designs; They can be deposited over large areas using low-temperature processes, a very desirable characteristic for BEOL integration, and The variety of compositions available gives designers many options to achieve the specific properties they need. Indium tin oxide (ITO), ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Geopolitics U.S. lawmakers are urging tighter export controls on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME) to China, warning existing loopholes threaten national security. "China is working to build domestic SME by exploiting access to U.S. and allied subcomponents required to produce tools," states the letter, which also says better coordination with allies is essential. The U.S.... » read more

Silicon Photonics In The Data Center: What A CMOS Exec Needs To Know


Silicon Photonics is changing the data center, with the biggest changes still ahead. Figure 1: Google Jupiter Network for multi-thousand Ironwood TPU clusters. Source: Google Refresher for new readers: Data centers contain hundreds or thousands of racks. For example, the Nvidia GB200 NVL72 AI compute/switch rack is about 24 inches wide, about 88 inches high and 42 inches deep. I... » read more

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