The Week In Review: Manufacturing
Fab tools and test Four former employees at Applied Materials were charged by the U.S. for allegedly trying to steal the company’s own fab tool technology designs, according to a report from Bloomberg...
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Chipmakers Look To New Materials
Graphene, the wonder material rediscovered in 2004, and a host of other two-dimensional materials are gaining ground in manufacturing semiconductors as silicon’s usefulness begins to fade. And while...
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Will Fab Tool Boom Cycle Last?
Fab equipment spending is on pace for a record year in 2017, and it now appears that momentum could continue into 2018. Fab tool vendors found themselves in the midst of an unexpected boom cycle in...
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Get Ready For 5G
The 5G wireless rollout, expected to occur over the next few years, will have a major impact on both the number and types of ICs in end-user devices, and on the base stations and repeaters needed to...
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A New Memory Contender?
Momentum is building for a new class of ferroelectric memories that could alter the next-generation memory landscape. Generally, ferroelectrics are associated with a memory type called ferroelectric...
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Ansys’ Steve Pytel argues that increased signaling speeds and frequencies have led to signal integrity issues that circuit simulation alone cannot handle. Cadence’s Paul McLellan dives into the details...
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The Future Of AI Is In Materials
I had the pleasure of hosting an eye-opening presentation and Q&A with Dr. Jeff Welser of IBM at a recent Applied Materials technical event in San Francisco. Dr. Welser is Vice President and...
View ArticleMoving Toward The Smart Factory In Microelectronics Manufacturing
The era of smart manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and the smart factory promises significant opportunities to reduce cost, boost productivity and improve quality in microelectronics manufacturing. But it...
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E-beam Inspection Makes Inroads
E-beam inspection is gaining traction in critical areas in fab production as it is becoming more difficult to find tiny defects with traditional methods at advanced nodes. Applied Materials, ASML/HMI...
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Market research The SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) opened with the theme “Smart, Intuitive & Connected: Semiconductor Devices Transforming the World.” Click here for some of the highlights...
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Nodes Vs. Nodelets
Foundries are flooding the market with new nodes and different process options at existing nodes, spreading confusion and creating a variety of challenges for chipmakers. There are full-node processes,...
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Metal Markets In Flux
Markets for critical metals are becoming turbulent, creating shortages and widespread supply chain concerns. Critical metals are the raw elements and materials used in the production of...
View ArticleThe Week In Review: Manufacturing
Chipmakers The IC industry continues to consolidate. For example, Qualcomm has a proposed plan to buy NXP. And then, Broadcom wants to buy Qualcomm. Who is next? In a research note, RBC Capital Markets...
View ArticleBlog Review: Jan. 31
Cadence’s Paul McLellan looks back at where TSMC was 30 years ago and the founding philosophy that made the foundry and fabless model work. In a video, Mentor’s Colin Walls considers how to make the...
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New Nodes, Materials, Memories
Ellie Yieh, vice president and general manager of Advanced Product Technology Development at Applied Materials, and head of the company’s Maydan Technology Center, sat down with Semiconductor...
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Transistor Options Beyond 3nm
Despite a slowdown in chip scaling amid soaring costs, the industry continues to search for a new transistor type 5 to 10 years out—particularly for the 2nm and 1nm nodes. Specifically, the industry is...
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What’s On Display
Displays provide the window between consumers and the information universe. There is no place like CES, held recently in Las Vegas, to see the most exciting new and future displays. Beyond traditional...
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What’s Next In Neuromorphic Computing
To integrate devices into functioning systems, it’s necessary to consider what those systems are actually supposed to do. Regardless of the application, machine learning tasks involve a training phase...
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5 Takeaways From ISS 2018
At the recent Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) in Half Moon Bay, Calif., there were a multitude of presentations on a number of subjects. The event, sponsored by SEMI, had presentations on the outlook...
View ArticleThe Week In Review: Manufacturing
Fab tools and test Applied Materials reported record revenue and operating profit in its first quarter ended Jan. 28. Compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2017, Applied grew net sales by 28% to...
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