The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers Intel and Micron have ended their long-running NAND joint development partnership. The companies will continue to develop NAND, but they will work independently on future generations of 3D NAND. The companies have agreed to complete the development of their third-generation of 3D NAND technology, which will be delivered towards the end of 2018. That is expected to be a 96-layer ... » read more

Foundry Challenges in 2018


The silicon foundry business is expected to see steady growth in 2018, but that growth will come with several challenges. On the leading edge, GlobalFoundries, Intel, Samsung and TSMC are migrating from the 16nm/14nm to the 10nm/7nm logic nodes. Intel already has encountered some difficulties, as the chip giant recently pushed out the volume ramp of its new 10nm process from the second half ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers, LCD suppliers United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) has announced the availability of the company’s 40nm process platform that incorporates Silicon Storage Technology’s (SST) embedded SuperFlash non-volatile memory. The 40nm SST process features a >20% reduction in eFlash cell size and 20-30% macro area over UMC’s 55nm SST technology. Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage has s... » read more

Huge Opportunities In Chinese Market


China’s massive semiconductor market and Europe’s prowess in smart car, IoT and other emerging technologies are complementary forces that underscore opportunities for deeper global semiconductor industry cooperation, SEMI China President Lung Chu said in November at the SIIP China Europe Forum during SEMICON Europa in Munich. In his speech “The Rise of China IC Industry – a Global Ec... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers Apple has announced the latest award from its $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund. Finisar, a manufacturer of optical communications components, will receive $390 million in funds from Apple. The award will enable Finisar to increase its R&D spending and high-volume production of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). A VCSEL is a type of semiconductor laser diode. The... » read more

Shortages Hit Packaging Biz


Rising demand for chips is hitting the IC packaging supply chain, causing shortages of select manufacturing capacity, various package types, leadframes and even some equipment. Spot shortages for some IC packages began showing up earlier this year, but the problem has been growing and spreading since then. Supply imbalances reached a boiling point in the third and fourth quarters of this yea... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Fab tools and test Four former employees at Applied Materials were charged by the U.S. for allegedly trying to steal the company’s own fab tool technology designs, according to a report from Bloomberg and others. The former employees were allegedly trying to sell the technology to a Chinese startup that would compete against Applied, according to the report. The former employees--Liang C... » read more

Women In Power


This is not my usual, technically-focused report, but it's important sometimes to reflect on the human side of the industry, which can seem woefully absent at times in the scramble to get projects out the door and meet quarterly numbers. This past Tuesday, November 28, I moderated a panel of women who are truly inspirational for the achievements in their respective parts of the industry, an... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Market research For the first time since 1993, the semiconductor industry has a new number one supplier in terms of sales—Samsung. Samsung is forecast to top Intel as the #1 semiconductor supplier in 2017, according to IC Insights. "Samsung first charged into the top spot in 2Q17 and displaced Intel, which had held the number 1 ranking since 1993," according to the firm. "In 1Q16, Intel’s ... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 22


ARM's Jem Davies talks about an upcoming documentary on AI and where the lines need to be drawn between machine intelligence and human emotional intelligence. Mentor's Saunder Peng examines the impact of merging physical verification databases, which can cost time and resources, and how that can be streamlined. Cadence's Paul McClellan takes a look back at the Xerox Alto and how it change... » read more

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