tag: Semico

Fearless chip and fab tool forecasts
By Mark LaPedus - 24 Jan, 2019 - Comments: 1

2019 is expected to be a challenging, if not confusing, year for the semiconductor and fab equipment industries. For example, Apple recently issued a warning about lackluster smartphone demand, which impacted several IC vendors and foundries. Then, the memory market is plummeting. In addition, the 10nm/7nm transition has proven to be difficult for many. And let’s not forget the geopolitica... » read more

What’s The Outlook for Memory?
By Mark LaPedus - 15 Nov, 2018 - Comments: 2

What a difference a year makes in the memory business. At this time last year, the industry was in the midst of a boom cycle for both NAND and DRAM. More specifically, there was huge demand for 3D NAND. Then, starting in the first quarter of 2018, the NAND market began to decline and it continues to fall. And now, the DRAM market is also falling off the cliff. So, it’s time to take a q... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test
By Mark LaPedus - 31 Aug, 2018 - Comments: 0

Chipmakers GlobalFoundries said that it is putting its 7nm finFET program on hold indefinitely and has dropped plans to pursue technology nodes beyond 7nm. To be sure, it was a tough decision by GF to put 7nm on hold. But generally, analysts believe that GF made the right decision. “There’s only a handful of semiconductor companies that will require high-volume 7nm technology right when... » read more

Embedded Flash Scaling Limits
By Mark LaPedus - 19 Jul, 2018 - Comments: 3

Embedded nonvolatile flash memory has played a key role in chips for years, but the technology is beginning to face some scaling and cost roadblocks and it’s not clear what comes next. Embedded flash is used in several markets, such as automotive, consumer and industrial. But the automotive sector appears to be the most concerned about the future of the technology. Typically, a car incorpo... » read more

Five Trends In IC Packaging
By Mark LaPedus - 16 Nov, 2017 - Comments: 0

At one time, chip packaging was an afterthought. Chipmakers were more worried about IC design. Packaging was considered a mere commodity, which was simply used to house the design. More recently, though, chip packaging has become a hot topic. The IC design is still important, but packaging is a key part of the solution. In fact, the industry can go down two paths. The traditional way is t... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 06 Oct, 2017 - Comments: 0

Test, measurement and fab tools National Instruments (NI) has released a report that explores the future trends in the electronics industry. The report, called the NI Trend Watch 2018, looks at the technological advances and some of the biggest challenges engineers face in 2018. The report from NI looks at the following topics—machine learning; test challenges for 5G; IIoT; and effects of... » read more

Memory Market: More Than ASPs At Risk
By Jim Feldhan - 17 Aug, 2017 - Comments: 1

By Adrienne Downey and Jim Feldhan In June 2016, the memory market emerged from its slump after reversing its 12-month ASP decline. Since then, we’ve seen a strong rebound for ASPs in both DRAM and NAND. Contributing to this recovery was the increasing demand in memory content per device across all end markets combined with a more controlled capital investment over the past several years.... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 14 Oct, 2016 - Comments: 0

Chipmakers Alain Kaloyeros, president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, has resigned. This comes amid charges that Kaloyeros was involved in an alleged bid-rigging scheme, according to multiple reports. SUNY Poly, a high-tech educational ecosystem in New York, was recently formed from the merger of the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) and the SUNY Institute of Technology. ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing
By Mark LaPedus - 29 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 0

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

Is 450mm Dead In The Water?
By Mark LaPedus - 15 May, 2014 - Comments: 3

At one time, Intel, TSMC and Samsung were aggressively beating the 450mm drum. Chipmakers wanted, if not demanded, 450mm pilot line fabs by 2016, with high-volume manufacturing 450mm plants slated by 2018. At least for those companies, 450mm made some sense. Moving to 450mm wafers would supposedly give chipmakers a 2.25x boost in wafer area and a 30% cost reduction over 300mm substrates. But... » read more

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