The Sub-2nm Paradox
Reducing variation in manufacturing, monitoring behavior over time, and targeting specific workloads can have a big impact on power, performance, and area/cost.
AI Accelerator Testing Depends On DFT Innovations
Multi-die assemblies greatly increase the number of things that can go wrong, and the difficulty of finding them.
Flash Getting Stacked High-Bandwidth Version
Inspired by HBM, HBF could improve AI efficiency in 3D flash memory.
Chiplets Need A New Workflow
Multi-die assemblies are facing full system-level challenges, but engineering teams need coordinated and repeatable ways to identify risks early and scale reliably.
Chip Industry Week In Review
Taiwan, Europe packaging buildout; 2nm ramps; quantum big $; 2 new university hubs; agent honeypots; Samsung strike averted; extreme environment chip design; quantum-dot qubit device fabricated w/high-NA EUV; EU flagship power electronics project; CNTs.
Can A Computer Science Student Be Taught To Design Hardware?
To fill the talent gap, CS majors could be taught to design hardware, and the EE curriculum could be adapted or even shortened.
Advanced Packaging Limits Come Into Focus
Mechanical and process control limits are now shaping what can be manufactured at scale.
Startup Funding: Q1 2026
Massive rounds for AI, EDA, and manufacturing; 80 startups raise $8.4B.
All AI Data Center Interconnects Will Be Optical Within 5 Years
InP and SiPho join CMOS as critical technologies. Lasers, CPO and OCS will be everywhere (indium phosphide, silicon photonics, co-packaged optics, optical circuit switch).
Making Hybrid Bonding Better
Why this technology is so essential for multi-die assemblies, and how it can be improved.
When Semiconductor Materials Misbehave
The gap between lab performance and fab reality is growing wider as packages grow more complex.
Backside Power Delivery Creates Fab Tool, Thermal Dissipation Barriers
Moving the power delivery network to the backside of a chip reduces congestion, but it introduces new challenges for fabs.
Securing Hardware For The Quantum Era
Quantum computers may become a security threat as early as next year, and that threat will continue to grow over the next several years.
