Unsticking Moore’s Law


Sanjay Natarajan, corporate vice president at Applied Materials with responsibility for transistor, interconnect and memory solutions, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about variation, Moore's Law, the impact of new materials such as cobalt, and different memory architectures and approaches. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Reliability is becoming more of an... » read more

Efforts to Suppress Nanosized Particles in Semiconductor Production Equipment


The currently dominant semiconductor process size is in the range between a few and a few dozen nanometers. That means if a nanosized-particle smaller than a virus (hereinafter simply “particle”) is present on a silicon substrate, it could cause a defect in the semiconductor device, lowering the production yield (i.e., the percentage of good chips produced in a manufacturing process).... » read more

Concurrent Test


Derek Wu, senior staff applications engineer at Advantest, looks at the need for doing multiple tests at the same time as chip designs become more complex, increasingly heterogeneous, and much more difficult to test at advanced nodes. https://youtu.be/-8inbjX_af0       __________________________________ See more tech talk videos here. » read more

AI In Chip Manufacturing


Ira Leventhal, New Concept Product Initiative vice president at Advantest, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about using analysis and deep learning to make test more efficient and more effective. https://youtu.be/3VVG4JVnjHo » read more

FD-SOI At The Edge


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss changes in the FD-SOI world and what's behind them, with James Lamb, deputy CTO for advanced semiconductor manufacturing and corporate technical fellow at Brewer Science; Giorgio Cesana, director of technical marketing at STMicroelectronics; Olivier Vatel, senior vice president and CTO at Screen Semiconductor Solutions; and Carlos Mazure, CTO at Soi... » read more

Foundries See Growth, New Issues In 2019


The silicon foundry business is poised for growth in 2019, although the industry faces several challenges across a number of market segments next year. Generally, foundry vendors saw steady growth in 2018, but many are ending the year on a sour note. Weak demand for Apple’s new iPhone XR and a downturn in the cryptocurrency market have impacted several IC suppliers and foundries, causing t... » read more

Mixed Outlook For Fab Equipment


As 2018 dawned, the semiconductor industry appeared to be poised for a rare fourth consecutive year of equipment investment growth. That rosy outlook is about to change as clouds gather in what until now has been the sunny sky. The latest edition of the World Fab Forecast Report, published by SEMI in December 2018, reveals a downward revision of total fab equipment spending growth for 2018 ... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Intel Mark Bohr, a senior fellow and director of process architecture and integration at Intel, is retiring, according to the company. Bohr, who will retire at the end of February 2019, held various technology positions during his 41-year career at Intel. Here is a quick bio on Bohr. Others have also recently retired from Intel’s manufacturing unit amid a massive reorganization in the depart... » read more

Planarization Challenges At 7nm And Beyond


Dan Sullivan, executive director of semiconductor technology at Brewer Science, digs into the challenges of planarizing a thin film on a wafer for etch and optical control. The problem becomes more difficult at advanced nodes because the films are thinner. https://youtu.be/iNA6EGpoYZU     _________________________________ See more tech talk videos here   » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fab tools/manufacturing Lam Research has accepted Martin Anstice’s resignation as chief executive and a member of the board. Lam has named Tim Archer as president and chief executive effective immediately. Archer, who served as Lam’s president and chief operating officer, has been named to the board. One analyst provided a comment on the situation at Lam. “In our view, Mr. Archer is very... » read more

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