Why Would IBM Sell Its Semi Group?


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


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 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 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


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

FinFETs On SOI


Soitec's Steve Longoria talks with Semiconductor Manufacturing and Design about what's changing at the leading edge of Moore's Law and why those changes are necessary. [youtube vid=K6D39QqJWSU] » read more

Experts At The Table: FinFET Questions And Issues


By Ed Sperling Low-Power/High-Performance Engineering sat down to discuss the current state and future promise of finFETs, and the myriad challenges, with Ruggero Castagnetti, an LSI fellow; Barry Pangrle, senior power methodology engineer at Nvidia; Steve Carlson, group director of marketing at Cadence; and Mary Ann White, director of product marketing at Synopsys. What follows are excerpts o... » read more

Upbeat Prediction


By Clark Tseng The semiconductor industry started out quite strong in 2012 but declined rapidly in the second half of the year, resulting in a slight year-over-year decline of 2.7% in worldwide semiconductor sales. On the other hand, worldwide capital equipment market recorded a decline of 15% from $43.5 billion in 2011 to $36.9 billion in 2012 according to the SEMI WWSEMS report. While indust... » read more

Supply Chain Catch-Up


There always will be a few big companies marching to the latest process node available to them. The problem these days isn’t their commitment to pushing forward. It’s the baggage train following them. It’s getting longer, more diverse, and in some cases, it’s falling out of sync. The foundries are out in front with 14nm finFETs, and they’re already working on 10nm transistors—pos... » read more

Fabs At Risk


By Adrienne Downey There are hundreds of semiconductor fabs spread all over the world. The trend over the past several years has been one of consolidation into several main manufacturing centers in the Asia/Pacific region, the United States, and Europe. Unfortunately for the industry, many of these fabs are located in areas prone to earthquakes. Some locations are also at an added risk of dama... » read more

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