The Week In Review: Manufacturing


IC Insights released its top-20 chip rankings in terms of sales for the first half of 2015. Samsung’s growth rate in 2Q ‘15 put the company closer to catching Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker. IC Insights also showed how the top-20 rankings would have looked if the proposed Avago/Broadcom and NXP/Freescale mergers were in place. Avago/Broadcom would have been ranked 7th and NXP/Freesc... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


According to Strategy Analytics, global mobile phone shipments grew a lackluster 2% annually to reach 435 million units in the second quarter of 2015. China’s Huawei was the star performer, as it captured a 7% share and overtook Microsoft to become the world’s third largest mobile phone vendor for the first time ever. Samsung remains in first place, while Apple is second. Remember when t... » read more

Top 15 Integrating Points In The Continuum Of Verification Engines


The integration game between the different verification engines, dynamic and static, is in full swing. Jim Hogan talked about the dynamic engines that he dubbed “COVE”, and I recently pointed out a very specific adoption of COVE in my review of some customer examples at DAC 2015 in “Use Model Versatility Is Key for Emulation Returns on Investment”. Here are my top 15 integrating poin... » read more

Which Process, Material, IP?


For years chipmakers have been demanding more choices. They've finally gotten what they wished for—so many possibilities, in fact, that engineering teams of all types are having trouble wading through them. And to make matters worse, some choices now come with unexpected and often unwanted caveats. At the most advanced nodes it's a given that being able to shrink features and double patter... » read more

Bigger, Brighter TVs


The flat panel display (FPD) industry is undergoing a renaissance, with suppliers rolling out a dizzying array of new, high-resolution technologies for mobile devices, computers and TVs. But despite being in the eye of the innovation storm, FPD equipment makers remain cautious—and for good reason. There are a slew of new LCD fabs being built today, mostly in China. This, in turn, is promp... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


German laser giant Trumpf is spending more than 70 million euros ($76.9 million) to build a new facility for its laser amplifier technology in EUV lithography applications. Trumpf has nothing to do with the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. But rather Trumpf is a German-based supplier of machine tools, lasers and electronics for industrial applications. Meanwhile, Trumpf’s new b... » read more

Fab Issues At 7nm And 5nm


The race toward the 7nm logic node officially kicked off in July, when IBM Research, GlobalFoundries and Samsung jointly rolled out what the companies claim are the industry’s first 7nm test chips with functional transistors. They're not alone, of course. Intel and TSMC also are racing separately to develop 7nm technology. And in the R&D labs, chipmakers also are working on technologies f... » read more

Inside Samsung’s Foundry Biz


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about the foundry business, process technology, design and other topics with Hong Hao, senior vice president of the foundry business at [getentity id="22865" e_name="Samsung Semiconductor"]; and Kelvin Low, senior director of foundry marketing at Samsung Semiconductor. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. SE: The foundry business has alway... » read more

It’s a Materials World, With Positive Forecast


By Michael Fury What’s the latest in materials forecasts for ALD/CVD precursors, CMP consumables, electronic gases, silicon wafers and sputtering targets? Techcet gives us an update. Metal Gate and Electrode Precursors to Double in Five Years Use of front-end Ta and W metal gate and Hf gate dielectric precursors will grow over 2.5x by 2020, according to a new report from Techcet, “20... » read more

What Will 7nm And 5nm Look Like?


Citing an assortment of undisclosed manufacturing issues, Intel in July pushed out the introduction of its 10nm chip and process technology to the second half of 2017. This is roughly six or more months later than expected. With the delay at 10nm, [getentity id="22846" e_name="Intel"] also pushed out its process cadence from 2 to 2.5 years. Other foundries, meanwhile, are struggling to keep ... » read more

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