GF Closes On IBM Chip Business Purchase

By Ann Mutschler - 01 Jul, 2015 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Ed Sperling and Mark LaPedus GlobalFoundries completed its acquisition of IBM's Microelectronics Group today, creating a behemoth that is expected to extend well beyond the combined footprint of the existing companies. To begin with, GlobalFoundries will get two additional fabs, one of which makes RF SOI chips. But while IBM was hesitant to expand that business ... » read more

Semiconductors By The Numbers

By Ed Sperling - 22 Jan, 2015 - Comments: 0

Five economists presented their observations and predictions on a broad range of issues, from cycles to wafer fab materials to geopolitics and how they will affect semiconductor manufacturing at this month's SEMI's Industry Strategy Symposium. Comparing their different viewpoints would be to take them out of context, because their starting points are so different. To avoid confusion, Semicon... » read more

Next-Generation Sustainability Gets More Challenging

By Paula Doe - 28 Jul, 2014 - Comments: 0

The semiconductor industry has made major progress on reducing energy usage and water consumption, and effectively abating its emissions, as companies made sustainability a core requirement in their design of new processes and tools. But it’s about to get considerably harder. That means more opportunities to add value with innovative technologies, and also more need for collaboration. Next... » read more

Real Countries Have Fabs

By Ed Sperling - 17 Apr, 2014 - Comments: 3

Persistent rumblings about the sale of IBM’s semiconductor unit might have seemed absurd a couple decades ago—before IBM sold off its PC unit to Lenovo and lost the gaming chip business to AMD’s x86 chips—but no one is scoffing at the possibility these days. The reality is that IBM will never reach the volume necessary to be the No. 1 or No. 2 player in its segment. It’s not even i... » read more

Living On The Edge

By Ed Sperling - 17 Apr, 2014 - Comments: 0

Looking around the globe at the big foundries these days, many of them are in danger zones—geopolitical, seismological, or areas that have been the incubators for public health disasters in recent years. This is one of the risks of a global supply chain, and it’s one that should cause ulcers for any supply chain management executive. South Korea’s Samsung is within a short missile laun... » read more

Why Would IBM Sell Its Semi Group?

By Ed Sperling - 20 Feb, 2014 - Comments: 1

Rumors are always just rumors until proven otherwise in business, but in the case of IBM’s semiconductor business, hints about the sale of its semiconductor business are particularly noteworthy. Much has changed since the days when IBM—as International Business Machines—went head-to-head with AT&T’s quasi-public Bell Labs and Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The breakup of... » read more

Leti Outlines FDSOI And Monolithic 3D IC Roadmaps

By Mark LaPedus - 14 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering discussed the future roadmaps for fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) technology and monolithic 3D chips with Maud Vinet, manager for the Innovative Devices Laboratory at CEA-Leti. SE: What are some of the technologies being developed at the Innovative Devices Laboratory? Vinet: The Innovative Devices Laboratory is involved with advanced CMOS. So basically... » read more

Merchant Photomask Makers Remain Relevant

By Jeff Chappell - 20 Jun, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Jeff Chappell For many years the trend in the semiconductor industry with regard to photomasks and chipmakers was to shed captive mask operations in favor of merchant photomask suppliers. This reflected a larger trend all along the supply chain with many companies moving away from vertical integration as, consequently, the foundry model grew. "This was mainly driven by cost consideratio... » read more

Consortium Mania Sweeps 450mm Landscape

By Mark LaPedus - 20 Jun, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Mark LaPedus In the mid-1990s, the semiconductor industry embarked on a costly and problematic migration from 200mm to 300mm wafer fabs. At the time, the 300mm development efforts were in the hands of two groups—Sematech and a Japanese-led entity. The equipment industry was on the outside looking in. And as a result, the migration from 200mm to 300mm fabs was out of sync and a nightma... » read more

Manufacturing Ecosystem Challenges

By Ed Sperling - 19 Jun, 2013 - Comments: 0

What are the challenges facing semiconductor manufacturers and designers at the leading edge of Moore's Law? Semiconductor Manufacturing & Design asked Kevin Kranen of Synopsys, Seow Yin Lim of Cadence, Michael Buehler-Garcia of Mentor Graphics and Tom Quan of TSMC. [youtube vid=d6-zMJSxnpg] » read more

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Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer

tag: semiconductor manufacturing