Shaping Tomorrow’s Semiconductor Technology IEDM 2024

Shaping Tomorrow’s Semiconductor Technology IEDM 2024
by Scotten Jones on 10-23-2024 at 6:00 am

IEDM 2024 SFO

Anyone who has read my articles about IEDM in the past know I consider it a premiere conference covering developments of leading-edge semiconductor process technology. The 2024 conference will take place in San Francisco from December 7th through 11th.

Some highlight of this year’s technical program are:

AI  – Lots of artificial… Read More


VLSI Technology Symposium – Intel describes i3 process, how does it measure up?

VLSI Technology Symposium – Intel describes i3 process, how does it measure up?
by Scotten Jones on 06-28-2024 at 6:00 am

Figure 1. Process Key Dimensions Comparison.

At the VLSI Technology Symposium this week Intel released details on their i3 process. Over the last four nodes Intel has had an interesting process progression. In 2019, 10nm finally entered production with both high performance and high-density standard cells. 10nm went through several iterations eventually resulting in… Read More


Intel High NA Adoption

Intel High NA Adoption
by Scotten Jones on 04-24-2024 at 6:00 pm

High NA EUV Final Pre Briefing Deck 4.15.24 embargoed til 4.18 at 7am PT (1) Page 07

On Friday April 12th Intel held a press briefing on their adoption of High NA EUV with Intel fellow and director of lithography Mark Phillips.

In 1976 Intel built Fab 4 in Oregon, the first Intel fab outside of California. With the introduction of 300mm Oregon became the only development site for Intel with large manufacturing, development,… Read More


No! TSMC does not Make 90% of Advanced Silicon

No! TSMC does not Make 90% of Advanced Silicon
by Scotten Jones on 03-11-2024 at 2:00 pm

Slide1

Throughout the debate on fab incentives and the Chips Act I keep seeing comments like; TSMC makes >90% of all advanced silicon, or sometimes Taiwan make >90% of all advanced silicon. This kind of ill-defined and grossly inaccurate statement drives me crazy. I just saw someone make that same claim in the SemiWiki forums and… Read More


Intel Direct Connect Event

Intel Direct Connect Event
by Scotten Jones on 02-23-2024 at 12:00 pm

Figure 1

On Wednesday, February 21st Intel held their first Foundry Direct Connect event. The event had both public and NDA sessions, and I was in both. In this article I will summarize what I learned (that is not covered by NDA) about Intel’s business, process, and wafer fab plans (my focus is process technology and wafer fabs).

Business
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ISS 2024 – Logic 2034 – Technology, Economics, and Sustainability

ISS 2024 – Logic 2034 – Technology, Economics, and Sustainability
by Scotten Jones on 02-19-2024 at 8:00 am

Slide4

For the 2024 SEMI International Strategy Symposium I was challenged by members of the organizing committee to look at where logic will be in ten years from a technology, economics, and sustainability perspective. The following is a discussion of my presentation.

To understand logic, I believe it is useful to understand what makes… Read More


IEDM 2023 – Imec CFET

IEDM 2023 – Imec CFET
by Scotten Jones on 01-17-2024 at 6:00 am

29 1 Wed Horiguchi 3 final Page 04

At IEDM 2023, Naoto Horiguchi presented on CFETs and Middle of Line integration. I had a chance to speak with Naoto about this work and this write up is based on his presentation at IEDM and our follow up discussion. I always enjoy talking to Naoto, he is one of the leaders in logic technology development, explains the technology in … Read More


IEDM 2023 – Modeling 300mm Wafer Fab Carbon Emissions

IEDM 2023 – Modeling 300mm Wafer Fab Carbon Emissions
by Scotten Jones on 01-09-2024 at 6:00 am

Figure 1

For the first time ever, IEDM held a sustainability session at the 2023 conference. I was one of the authors who presented an invited paper, the following is a summary of my presentation.

Call to Action

From the United Nations [1]:

“Climate Change is the defining issue of our time, and we are at a defining moment.”

“Without drastic … Read More


IEDM 2023 is Coming in December

IEDM 2023 is Coming in December
by Scotten Jones on 10-19-2023 at 6:00 am

IEDM 2023

Anyone who has read my previous IEDM articles will know I view it as one of the best conferences on semiconductor process technology. From the tutorials, short courses and the conference papers there are so many great opportunities to keep up to date on the latest developments. The following are the conference organizers’ announcements… Read More


SMIC N+2 in Huawei Mate Pro 60

SMIC N+2 in Huawei Mate Pro 60
by Scotten Jones on 09-08-2023 at 6:00 am

TechInsights Huawei SMIC

Up until last December I was president and owner of IC Knowledge LLC, at the end of November, I sold IC Knowledge LLC to TechInsights. It has been interesting to become an insider at the world’s leading semiconductor reverse engineering and knowledge company. The latest SMIC N+2 analysis is an excellent example of TechInsight’s… Read More