Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


On Sunday, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the southeast region of Taiwan, causing devastation. TSMC officials reported “no known significant impact for now.” Market research firm TrendForce arrived at a similar conclusion based on its analysis of individual fabs. The Biden administration announced appointment of the leadership team charged with implementing the US CHIPS and Science Ac... » read more

Strengthening The Global Semi Supply Chain


Within the semiconductor ecosystem, there are a number of dynamics pointing to the need for new ways of partnering in more meaningful ways that bring resiliency to the global semiconductor supply chain. One of these is the move to bespoke silicon, stemming from a shift in the companies that create most SoCs today -- the hyperscalar cloud providers. These market leaders know their workloads so w... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


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

How To Compare Chips


Traditional metrics for semiconductors are becoming much less meaningful in the most advanced designs. The number of transistors packed into a square centimeter only matters if they can be utilized, and performance per watt is irrelevant if sufficient power cannot be delivered to all of the transistors. The consensus across the chip industry is that the cost per transistor is rising at each ... » read more

Technical Paper Roundup: Sept. 12


New technical papers added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library this week. [table id=51 /] Semiconductor Engineering is in the process of building this library of research papers. Please send suggestions (via comments section below) for what else you’d like us to incorporate. If you have research papers you are trying to promote, we will review them to see if they are a good fit f... » read more

Scaling Down To 2nm: Using Microwaves For Efficient & Stable Doping


A new technical paper titled "Efficient and stable activation by microwave annealing of nanosheet silicon doped with phosphorus above its solubility limit" was just published by researchers at National Taiwan University, Cornell University, TSMC, University of Valladolid, DSG Technologies, National Central University and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. A modified microwave was used... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Some funding details are now available for the CHIPS Act in the U.S. The Biden Administration plans to spend the money in the following ways: $28 billion to establish domestic production of leading-edge logic and memory chips through grants, subsidized loans or loan guarantees; $10 billion to increase production of current-generation semiconductors and chips, and $11 billion for rese... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


New fab construction At an event in Arizona, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo urged states to compete for funding made available for producing semiconductors by the U.S. federal government. Indeed, several companies are already doing just that. The latest developments include: Micron plans to invest approximately $15 billion through 2030 for a new memory fab near its existing headquart... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


The U.S. Commerce Department issued export controls on key technologies, including gallium oxide (Ga2O3) and diamond substrates, which are used at high voltages and temperatures, as well as EDA tools specifically developed for GAA FETs. It's not clear how this will impact EDA companies, because many of the tools that will be used for designing for GAA FETs already are in use today for finFETs. ... » read more

Big Changes In Architectures, Transistors, Materials


Chipmakers are gearing up for fundamental changes in architectures, materials, and basic structures like transistors and interconnects. The net result will be more process steps, increased complexity for each of those steps, and rising costs across the board. At the leading-edge, finFETs will run out of steam somewhere after the 3nm (30 angstrom) node. The three foundries still working at th... » read more

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