Blog Review: June 25


Is the Amazon Fire smart phone a paradigm shift? Cadence’s Brian Fuller looks at the first application-specific smart phone and why it’s noteworthy—regardless of how well it fares against phones made by Apple and Samsung. Rambus’ Deepak Chandra Sekar digs deep into interconnect technology and where the prevailing winds are blowing—copper barrier/cap/liner optimization, a slowdown i... » read more

Semicon West Preview: Packaging


By Paula Doe The evolving mobile device market means the packaging, assembly and test supply chain faces a growing range of alternative technologies vying for its investment dollar, everything from Google’s modular electronics with 3D printing, to more solutions for integrating varied chips in smaller packaged systems. One potentially disruptive change is the wider use of more open-source... » read more

SEMICON West Preview


By Paula Doe The fast growing demand for bandwidth is driving telecomm and data center user interest in moving high speed optical connections closer and closer to the chips, as recent advances in packaging technology, from microbumping to bonding to wafer-level redistribution now help make it possible. Chip-to-chip and chip-to-board optical connections increasingly look like a viable soluti... » read more

What’s Next For MEMS


By Paula Doe While MEMS sensors and actuators are key to enabling most of the high profile markets of tomorrow, from wearables to smart objects in the Internet of Things, MEMS companies face challenges today in transitioning to those new opportunities as basic MEMS devices increasingly becoming commodities. Large corporations are hiring their own in-house MEMS engineers, as standard platforms ... » read more

Semicon West Lithography Report


OK, I have to admit this right off:  I didn’t go to Semicon West (held two weeks ago in San Francisco).  I try never to go to Semicon West (I’ve been twice in the last 30 years, both times against my will).  Why should I go?  To listen to the latest marketing messages and company spin?  To see a few technical talks that are way too light on the technical, but still full of talk?  I do... » read more

The Week In Review: July 15


By Mark LaPedus There are more problems surfacing with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Yes, the light source remains a problem, but the resists appear to be in decent shape. “The next challenge is the mask blank,” said Stefan Wurm, director of Sematech’s lithography program. The new problem involves ion beam deposition, which apparently is causing defects and overfill on EUV masks... » read more

The Week In Review: July 8


By Mark LaPedus Fab tool vendors this week will gather at the annual Semicon West trade show in San Francisco. The mood is expected to be both gloomy and upbeat, at least based on one new and mixed forecast. The semiconductor equipment market is projected to fall 7.4% in 2013, but it will grow 27.1% in 2014, according to VLSI Research. The forecast for semis is up 10% in 2013 and 8.3% growth i... » read more

SEMICON West: Accelerating R&D


By Karen Savala Earlier this month, SEMI announced the addition of the Silicon Innovation Forum (SIF) to SEMICON West to help accelerate the innovation pipeline for advanced semiconductor technology. This exciting program was developed in collaboration with leading strategic investment groups in our industry, including Applied Ventures, Dow Chemical Company, Intel Capital, Micron Ventures, TE... » read more

EUV Remains Elusive


By David Lammers Intel’s decision to invest as much as $4.1 billion in ASML has raised overall confidence levels in EUV lithography, and should allow the Dutch lithography vendor to funnel more funds into the stubbornly difficult effort to raise the EUV source power. ASML has said it needs to reach 250 Watts of average source power to achieve the 125 wph throughputs sought by its early cu... » read more

Going Solar


Bettina Weiss, who heads SEMI’s solar effort, talks about what’s new at Semicon and Intersolar North America, how far the industry has progressed and what stands in the way of widespread adoption of solar technology. [youtube vid=rCAeaXijQy0] » read more

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