Semiconductor manufacturing has always depended on precise measurement. As devices become more complex and packaging integrates more components, however, measuring individual process steps is no longer enough. Manufacturers need to understand how decisions across fabrication, assembly, and test affect the finished … Read More
The Wafer Is the New Battleground: Soitec CPO René Jonker on Building AI from the Substrate Up
Most of the AI conversation stops at the chip. At SEMICON West 2026 I sat down with René Jonker, Chief Product Officer of Soitec, to talk about what sits underneath it.
Ask an engineer where AI performance comes from and you will hear about process nodes, dataflow, HBM stacks and interconnect fabrics. Rarely about the wafer. Yet a … Read More
When Nanomagnets Do the Math: France’s New Machine for Impossible Choices
French researchers have demonstrated a hybrid nanoelectronic “Ising machine” designed to solve difficult combinatorial optimization problems more efficiently. The experimental system combines two emerging device technologies—resistive memory and spintronics—to perform parts of an optimization algorithm through… Read More
Inside the Package Powering Modern AI
TSMC’s CoWoS-S is critical to the artificial intelligence era because it solves the central systems problem facing modern accelerators: computing capability is growing faster than conventional packages can supply data, power, and connectivity. CoWoS-S, meaning Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate with a silicon interposer, … Read More
From Sequential R&D to Trusted Co-Innovation: The EPIC Model for Semiconductor Innovation
The semiconductor industry has long depended on collaboration between technology developers, equipment suppliers and manufacturers. But as artificial intelligence reshapes computing, established ways of working together may no longer be sufficient. The next wave of innovation will depend not just on what companies develop,… Read More
SEMICON West’s Autonomous Fab Vision Needs a Decision-Escalation Design
By Gleb Tsipursky
SEMICON West 2026’s smart-manufacturing agenda connected digital twins, agentic AI, physical AI, and increasingly autonomous factory operations. The final day included a session on automation and equipment for autonomous facilities. At its October CONNECT conference, PDF Solutions planned demonstrations… Read More
Teradyne Targets Edge AI Test Costs With UltraFLEXplus S Series
Teradyne has introduced the UltraFLEXplus S series, extending its semiconductor test platform to address the manufacturing economics of edge artificial intelligence. Announced on October 12, 2026, the series begins with the UltraFLEXplus S24, a 24-slot system intended for engineering and production testing. Its target… Read More
Why America’s Semiconductor Manufacturing Capacity Matters
America’s semiconductor future will be shaped by its ability to turn scientific discoveries into chips manufactured at scale. That is why the investments outlined in Intel Foundry’s recent editorial matter beyond the company’s own business. They address a fundamental question: whether the United States can sustain the research,… Read More
The Industry Challenge: AI Is Forcing Semiconductor Innovation Beyond the Chip
Applied Materials President and CEO Gary Dickerson with the EPIC Center founding partners on October 12, 2026, in Sunnyvale, CA. (Tomas Ovalle/AP Content Services for Applied Materials, Inc.)The bottlenecks are becoming interconnected
Artificial intelligence is changing what the semiconductor industry must deliver. … Read More
TSMC’s AI Expansion Signals a Broader Shift in Computing
TSMC is describing an artificial intelligence boom that reaches beyond accelerator chips into the wider computing infrastructure needed to support increasingly capable AI systems. On the recent investor call, Chairman and CEO Dr. C.C. Wei presents strong demand, persistent supply constraints and an ambitious expansion … Read More


Jensen Huang and the Cost of Unchecked Influence