IMEC and Cadence Disclose 5nm Test Chip

IMEC and Cadence Disclose 5nm Test Chip
by Scotten Jones on 10-09-2015 at 7:00 am

Recently imec and Cadence disclosed that they had fabricated 5nm test chips. This afternoon Dan Nenni and I had a conference call with Praveen Raghavan, principal engineer at imec, and Vassilios Gerousis, distinguished engineer at Cadence to get more details on what the test chip is and what was learned.

First off Vassilios really… Read More


SEMICON West 2015 Recap – Day 1 – Softening Markets, Sub 14nm and 3D NAND

SEMICON West 2015 Recap – Day 1 – Softening Markets, Sub 14nm and 3D NAND
by Scotten Jones on 07-21-2015 at 6:00 pm

Tuesday morning press briefing
The show started for me Tuesday morning with the SEMI press briefing. SEMI said there are 1,200 booths this year, 629 exhibiting companies and over 180 hours of programming. They also said pre-registration was up from last year and they expect 26,000 visitors.

Dan Tracy then gave an update on the markets.… Read More


Cost Modeling as a Decision Making Tool

Cost Modeling as a Decision Making Tool
by Scotten Jones on 07-19-2015 at 10:00 am

The use of simulation is well established in the semiconductor industry. Virtually all circuit designs are run through a Spice simulation, layouts are analyzed for timing issues and even process development employs process simulation tools. What I believe is less widely used but just as useful is cost modeling.

The semiconductor… Read More


Who Needs to Lead at the 14, 10 and 7nm nodes

Who Needs to Lead at the 14, 10 and 7nm nodes
by Scotten Jones on 07-11-2015 at 12:00 pm

IBM recently disclosed a working 7nm test chip generating a lot of excitement in the semiconductor industry and also in the mainstream media. In this article I wanted to explore the 14nm, 10nm and 7nm nodes, the status of the key competitors at each node and what it may mean for the companies.

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SEMICON West Preview

SEMICON West Preview
by Scotten Jones on 07-07-2015 at 7:00 am

Founded in 1971 (2015: 45th year), SEMICON West 2015 is coming to the Moscone Center in San Francisco on from Tuesday, July 14[SUP]th[/SUP] to Thursday, July 16[SUP]th[/SUP]. SEMICON is the premier show for equipment and materials companies supporting the semiconductor, MEMS and solar industries.

The main ways to get value … Read More


Extending EUV Lithography

Extending EUV Lithography
by Scotten Jones on 06-12-2015 at 1:00 pm

I have previously written about SPIE day 1 and 2 so I want to wrap up my coverage with some impressions from days 3 and 4. My single biggest take away from the conference is that EUV has made tremendous progress in the last 12 months. Last year the mood of the conference was in my opinion pessimistic with respect to EUV, this year the mood… Read More


ASMC 2015: GlobalFoundries 22nm SOI plans and more!

ASMC 2015: GlobalFoundries 22nm SOI plans and more!
by Scotten Jones on 05-16-2015 at 3:00 pm

The Advance Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference was held on May 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] through May 6[SUP]th[/SUP] in Saratoga Springs, New York. ASMC brings a unique operational perspective to technical conferences related to semiconductors. In this blog I wanted to discuss what I thought was the most interesting paper of the… Read More


ASMC 2015 Preview

ASMC 2015 Preview
by Scotten Jones on 05-01-2015 at 7:00 am

From May 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] to May 6[SUP]th[/SUP] the 26[SUP]th[/SUP] annual Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC) will be held in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The ASMC offers a unique view of challenges to the semiconductor industry focusing on things like defect reduction, metrology and fab operations. In… Read More


Moore’s Law is dead, long live Moore’s Law – part 5

Moore’s Law is dead, long live Moore’s Law – part 5
by Scotten Jones on 04-22-2015 at 4:00 am

In the first four installments of this series we have examined Moore’s law, described the drivers that have enabled Moore’s law and discussed the specific status and issues around DRAM and logic. In this final installment we will examine NAND Flash.… Read More