The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Fab tools Lam Research’s proposed move to acquire KLA-Tencor has been pushed out for the second time. The deal was supposed to be completed by mid-2016. Then, it was pushed out to the third quarter amid regulatory issues. Now, the companies hope to close the deal by the fourth quarter of 2016. “The KLA-Tencor acquisition is expected to close in the December quarter. This reflects another p... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Market research Worldwide semiconductor capital spending is projected to decline 0.7% in 2016, to $64.3 billion, according to Gartner. This is up from the estimated 2% decline in Gartner's previous quarterly forecast. "Economic instability, inventory excess, weak demand for PC’s, tablets, and mobile products in the past three years has caused slow growth for the semiconductor industry. This ... » read more

5 Takeaways From Semicon


As usual, the recent Semicon West trade show was a busy, if not an overwhelming, event. The event, which took place in San Francisco in early July, featured presentations on the usual subjects in the semiconductor and IC-equipment sectors. There were sessions on 200mm, next-generation processes, transistors, lithography, MEMS and many others. In no particular order, here are my five ta... » read more

3D Printing: What Does It Mean For The Semiconductor Industry?


Semico Research was pleased to host the 3D printing TechXPOT at SEMICON West 2016, in conjunction with SEMI. We also hosted the inaugural 3D printing session at SEMICON West 2014. What is striking is how much the 3D printing industry has changed in those two years. In 2014, 3D printing was at the height of media attention; the major questions were when each home would have its own 3D printer. I... » read more

200mm Equipment Shortfall


A surge in demand for consumer electronics, communications ICs, sensors and other products has created a shortage in 200mm fab capacity that shows no signs of abating. None of these chips need to be manufactured using the most advanced processes, and there have been enough tweaks to processes at established nodes to eke even more out of existing processes. But that has left chipmakers strugg... » read more

Foundry Capacity Investment Led By Taiwan And China


The era of every company building a captive fab for next-generation products is ancient history, as foundries throughout the world provide leading-edge technology and flexible capacity in a timely and cost-effective manner. In today’s mobile-driven ecosystem, faster product development cycles and time-to-market have become the norm for the industry. Now, this trend is even spreading to the co... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Fab and test equipment The wafer inspection market is heating up. For example, Applied Materials announced its new e-beam inspection system for use in foundry, logic, DRAM and 3D NAND applications. In addition, KLA-Tencor introduced six wafer defect inspection and review systems for leading-edge IC device manufacturing. National Instruments has rolled out a second-generation vector sig... » read more

New Starting Point


Debate has been raging for years about whether software or hardware should be the starting point for improving power and performance, or whether it should elevated another notch by fusing hardware and software into a system-level approach. Now, groups like Leti, IEEE, SEMI, and a number of researchers in leading universities around the globe are beginning to talk about moving the starting point... » read more

Data Analytics To Drive IC Shift


The adoption of predictive analytics has the potential to drive the next round of IC industry innovation and growth. Much of the necessary data handling technology is now available from other sectors. However, to fully capitalize on the possibilities, the IC manufacturing world faces particular challenges in figuring out how to get a high yield of actionable information from its streams of vari... » read more

Advanced Packaging Options, Issues


Systems in package are heading for the mass market in applications that demand better performance and lower power. As they do, new options for cutting costs are being developed to broaden the appeal of this approach as an alternative to shrinking features. Cost has been one of the big deterrents for widespread adoption of [getkc id="82" kc_name="2.5D"]. Initially, the almost universal compla... » read more

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