Manufacturing Bits: July 7


Silicon photonics prototyping A group of European and other research organizations have put the finishing touches on a project to help propel the development of silicon photonics into the commercial market. The project, dubbed ESSenTIAL, enables small- to mid-sized enterprises to develop prototypes and products based on silicon photonics. Funded by the European Commission, the project inclu... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: March 24


Mouse brains to multi-beam At the recent SPIE Advanced Lithography conference, Sematech provided an update on its multi-beam, e-beam inspection program. The goal is to develop a next-generation inspection tool, which could be faster than traditional e-beam inspection and could one day displace brightfield inspection. “Optical inspection is having trouble detecting particles that are small... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: March 24


Power from packing peanuts After setting up a new lab, a Purdue University research team was left with a problem: mountains of packing peanuts. Instead of filling bags destined for a dumpster, the team saw an opportunity to find the packing material a useful purpose. The result was a process to convert waste packing peanuts into high-performance carbon electrodes for rechargeable lithium-... » read more

Supersizing Wafers


By Katherine Derbyshire Get ready for 450mm wafers. First seriously considered in 2005, these supersized wafers, along with the equipment to handle, measure, and process them, have gradually made their way to the top of the semiconductor industry’s priority list. But what exactly does that mean? What will 450mm fabs look like, and how will they differ from the 300-mm fabs being built toda... » read more

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