Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

By Karen Heyman - 16 Sep, 2022 - Comments: 0

President Biden signed an executive order on Sept. 15, limiting foreign investments in U.S. technology by "competitor or adversarial nations" that are deemed a threat to national security. In the past, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) largely limited its actions to the sale of U.S. companies. The new directive expands that to include investments involving "U.S. s... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

By Karen Heyman - 29 Jul, 2022 - Comments: 1

The U.S. Congress approved the CHIPS Act, a mammoth bipartisan achievement the New York Times called “the most significant government intervention in industrial policy in decades.” As passed, the full package — now called the Chips and Science Act — contains $52 billion in direct assistance for the semiconductor industry, along with $24 billion in tax incentives. In addition, the bill c... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

By Karen Heyman - 22 Jul, 2022 - Comments: 0

Ramping capacity Samsung is considering building as many as 11 fabs in central Texas, investing an estimated $200 billion and creating as many as 10,000 jobs. The plans came to light when the company filed paperwork for tax breaks. Samsung already has broken ground on a new $17 billion fab in Taylor, Texas. The remaining nine fabs, including two in nearby Austin, would be built over the next c... » read more

Hybrid Bonding Moves Into The Fast Lane

By Laura Peters - 21 Jul, 2022 - Comments: 1

The industry’s unquenchable thirst for I/O density and faster connections between chips, particularly logic and cache memory, is transforming system designs to include 3D architectures, and hybrid bonding has become an essential component in that equation. Hybrid bonding involves die-to-wafer or wafer-to-wafer connection of copper pads that carry power and signals and the surrounding diele... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power

By Jesse Allen - 01 Jul, 2022 - Comments: 0

IP, design Arm unveiled a number of new CPUs and GPUs. Based on the Armv9 architecture, the Cortex-X3 aims to improve single-threaded performance and targets a range of benchmarks and applications. The Cortex-A715 focuses on efficient performance, delivering a 20% energy efficiency gain and 5% performance uplift compared to Cortex-A710. In addition, the Cortex-A510 and DSU-110 were updated to ... » read more

Silicon-based Power Semis Face Challenges

By Mark LaPedus - 17 Feb, 2022 - Comments: 0

Suppliers of power semiconductors continue to develop and ship devices based on traditional silicon technology, but silicon is nearing its limits and faces increased competition from technologies like GaN and SiC. In response, the industry is finding ways to extend traditional silicon-based power devices. Chipmakers are eking out more performance and prolonging the technology, at least in th... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

By Mark LaPedus - 28 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

Government policy As reported, the United States is in dire need of more fab capacity as well as packaging plants. The U.S. took a big step in an effort to solve the problem. The U.S. House of Representatives this week introduced the America Competes Act of 2022. The bill includes funding for the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America (CHIPS) Act, which is earmarked... » read more

200mm Shortages May Persist For Years

By Mark LaPedus - 20 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 2

A surge in demand for chips at more mature process nodes is causing shortages for both 200mm foundry capacity and 200mm equipment, and it shows no signs of letting up. In fact, even with new capacity coming on line this year, shortages are likely to persist for years, driving up prices and forcing significant changes across the semiconductor supply chain. Shortages for both 200mm foundry cap... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

By Mark LaPedus - 14 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

Chipmakers, OEMs TSMC reported sales of $15.736 billion for the fourth quarter of 2021, up 5.7% sequentially. Net income grew 6.4% quarter-over-quarter. In the fourth quarter, shipments of 5nm accounted for 23% of total wafer revenues, while 7nm accounted for 27%. In the first quarter of 2022, TSMC’s sales are expected to be between $16.6 billion to $17.2 billion. TSMC also expects its 20... » read more

Expanding Advanced Packaging Production In The U.S.

By Mark LaPedus - 05 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

The United States is taking the first steps toward bringing larger-scale IC packaging production capabilities back to the U.S. as supply chain concerns and trade tensions grow. The U.S. is among the leaders in developing packages, especially new and advanced forms of the technology that promise to shake up the semiconductor landscape. And while the U.S. has several packaging vendors, North A... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

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

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

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

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: SkyWater

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

Hybrid Bonding Moves Into The Fast Lane

Week In Review: Design, Low Power

Silicon-based Power Semis Face Challenges

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

200mm Shortages May Persist For Years

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test

Expanding Advanced Packaging Production In The U.S.