Novel Thin Film Growth Technique Of A WBG Sulfide Semiconductor in BEOL Compatible Conditions (USC, LBNL, TSMC)


A new technical paper titled "Textured growth and electrical characterization of Zinc Sulfide on back-end-of-the-line (BEOL) compatible substrates" was published by researchers at USC, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and TSMC. Abstract "Scaling of transistors has enabled continuous improvements in logic device performance, especially through materials engineering. However, surpassing ... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: May 13


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=430 /] Find more semiconductor research papers here.   » read more

A Route For More Efficient SOT-MRAM Designs (NTU, TSMC)


A new technical paper titled "Efficient Magnetization Switching via Orbital-to-Spin Conversion in Cr/W-Based Heterostructures" by researchers at National Taiwan University and TSMC. Abstract "A highly efficient spin–orbit torque (SOT) switching mechanism is crucial for the realization of practical SOT magnetic random-access memory (MRAM). This study proposes a Cr/W-based spin current sour... » read more

Three-Way Race To 3D-ICs


Intel Foundry, TSMC, and Samsung Foundry are scrambling to deliver all the foundational components of full 3D-ICs, which collectively will deliver orders of magnitude improvements in performance with minimal power sometime within the next few years. Much attention has been focused on process node advances, but a successful 3D-IC implementation is much more complex and comprehensive than just... » read more

Photonics Speeds Up Data Center AI


Photonics is playing an increasingly vital role in the acceleration of AI within data centers. The global market for optical components is already substantial, accounting for $17 billion in revenue last year. Historically, telecommunications — such as undersea cables and fiber-to-the-home — dominated demand. However, the datacom sector, especially AI-driven data centers, now accounts for... » read more

TSMC Tech Symposium 2025


TSMC held its North America Technology Symposium on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 at the Santa Clara Convention Center and presented update information on its relentless march to ever finer geometries and higher levels of scaling. Figure 1, below, shows TSMC’s latest advanced technology roadmap. Compared to the roadmap presented at last year’s tech symposium, the new roadmap shows the “Hig... » read more

Chip Industry Week in Review


To listen to the podcast version, click here. TSMC unveiled an unusually detailed roadmap at this week's North America Technology Symposium, including future architectures for 3D-ICs for high-performance computing and small, extremely low-power chips for AR/VR glasses, and two implementations of system-on-wafer. Fig. 1: TSMC's future packaging and stacking roadmap. Source: TSMC The ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


[Podcast version is here.] TSMC said it will produce 30% of its leading-edge chips in Arizona when all six of its fabs are operational, a total investment of $165 billion, Axios reported. In its latest SEC filing, the foundry said it continues to add capacity in Taiwan, Arizona, Japan, and Germany. The Trump administration launched a Section 232 investigation into semiconductors and relat... » read more

Backside Power Delivery Nears Production


Backside power delivery is being called a game changer — a breakthrough technology and the next great enabler in CMOS scaling. It promises significant PPA advances, including faster switching, lower voltage droop, and reduced power supply noise. And it is poised to deliver these benefits below the 2nm node, despite a substantial disruption in front-end processes from lithography pattern di... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Don't have time to read this? Check out Semiconductor Engineering's Inside Chips podcast.  The U.S. Department of Commerce is investigating TSMC for potential export control violations involving Huawei chips, reports Reuters. The probe follows TechInsights' teardown of a Huawei AI accelerator chip last year. The foundry, meanwhile, maintains it has not shipped any chips to Huawei since 2020... » read more

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