Making The Right Choices


FD-SOI at 28nm, or finFETs at 20/14nm? To companies looking at the cost equation, the total market opportunity for SoCs and the NRE required to get there, this is still a manageable formula. It requires lots of number crunching and some unknowns, but by the time you get done with the math it still falls within an acceptable margin of error and the choices are relatively simple. For foundries... » read more

SOI Highlights at Common Platform Tech Forum


Posted by Adele Hars, Editor-in-Chief, Advanced Substrate News ~  ~ The 2013 Common Platform Technology Forum showcased “the latest technological advances being delivered to the world’s leading electronics companies,” so of course SOI-based topics were well-represented. Happily, those of us who weren’t able to get over to Silicon Valley were able to attend “virtually” via a ... » read more

Smartphones Dial Up New RF Processes


By Mark LaPedus The rapid shift towards smartphones and tablets is driving the need for new and low-power chips at finer geometries. Today, the latest application processors, integrated basebands and other digital cell-phone chips are 28nm planar devices. And it won’t be long before OEMs incorporate 20nm planar and finFET devices in their systems as a means to reduce power and extend batt... » read more

Tradeoffs On The Fly


By Ann Steffora Mutschler With classical bulk planar technology no longer shrinkable, the industry has been honing in on new ways to continue some scaling, achieve extra speed or better power while minimizing leakage. “To overcome the limits [of bulk planar technology] we need a different solution,” explained Giorgio Cesano, technology R&D marketing director at STMicroelectron... » read more

Predictions, Problems And Prognosis


Never before in the long and often turbulent history of the semiconductor industry have so many problems presented themselves at each new process node. And never before have there been so many well-tested choices to resolving them. After possibly the most intensive, extensive and expensive research this industry has ever witnessed, Moore’s Law is now technologically assured down to at leas... » read more

Upping The Ante


The increasing number of research projects under way to solve many of the thorniest issues in the history of semiconductor design and manufacturing are a testament to just how tough the job has become. Never before have there been so many technological roadblocks at the same time—and so many potential options for solving them. Those challenges—or opportunities, as marketing execs like to... » read more

Don’t miss Fully-Depleted Tech Symposium during IEDM (SF)


Posted by Adele Hars, Editor-in-Chief, Advanced Substrate News ~  ~ If you want to cut through the noise surrounding the choices for 28nm and beyond, an excellent place to start is the SOI Consortium’s Fully Depleted Technology Symposium. As a member of the design and manufacturing communities, this is your chance to see and hear what industry leaders are actually doing. Planar? F... » read more

Node Skipping Reaches New Heights


By Mark LaPedus For years, silicon foundries have rolled out their respective leading-edge processes roughly on a two-year cadence. The long-standing goal has been to keep foundry customers on a competitive price, power and performance curve. But as leading-edge chipmakers move from the 28nm node and beyond, the predictable process progression is changing. And the phenomenon of “node skip... » read more

Deep Inside Intel


By Ed Sperling Semiconductor Manufacturing & Design sat down with Mark Bohr, senior fellow at Intel, to talk about a wide range of manufacturing and design issues Intel is wrestling with at advanced nodes—and just how far the road map now extends. SMD: Will EUV make 10nm? And if it doesn’t, what effect will that have on Intel? Bohr: For a process module as critical as lithography... » read more

Innovative Wafers For Energy-Efficient CMOS Technology


For continued attractiveness and competitiveness of advanced electronic appliances such as smartphones, TVs, notebooks or tablets, the semiconductor industry is moving to “fully depleted” transistor technology to build integrated circuits. This technology comes in two flavors: planar and tri-dimensional (FinFET), each with its own advantages and challenges. This White Paper explains how inn... » read more

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