On November 10th I watched the presentation by L.C. Lu, TSMC Fellow & VP, as he talked about enabling system innovation with dozens of slides in just 26 minutes. TSMC is the number one semiconductor foundry in the world, and their Open Innovation Platform (OIP) events are popular and well attended as the process technology and… Read More
TSMC Expands the OIP Ecosystem!
This was the 12th TSMC OIP and it did not disappoint. The attendance was back to pre pandemic levels, there was interesting news and great presentations. We will cover the presentations in more depth after the virtual event which is on November 10th. You can register HERE.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the Jim Keller Keynote … Read More
Intel Foundry Services Forms Alliance to Enable National Security, Government Applications
This will be the year of the semiconductor foundry ecosystem, absolutely. Right in between the Samsung SAFE Forum and the TSMC OIP Open Ecosystem Forum, Intel Foundry Services (IFS) just announced a United States Military, Aerospace, and Government (USMAG) Alliance.
Brilliant move, of course, due to the US Government now being… Read More
A Perspective on Semiconductor Manufacturing Initiatives & Strategies
My name is Sagar, and I’ve been a long-time executive in the semiconductor manufacturing world — holding key positions at large multi-nationals, a leading semiconductor foundry, and partnering with many of the top-tier foundries and OSATs. Since “retiring”, I’ve also spent time advising and investing in start-ups through … Read More
TSMC 2022 Open Innovation Platform Ecosystem Forum Preview
One of my favorite events is just around the corner and that is the TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum and it’s at my favorite Silicon Valley venue the Santa Clara Convention Center. Nobody knows more about the inner workings of the ecosystem than TSMC so this is the premier semiconductor collaboration event, absolutely.
In my 40 years as a … Read More
A Memorable Samsung Event
Samsung hosted its first-ever Samsung Tech Week Oct 3-5 with some insightful keynotes and great food. The week led off with Samsung Foundry Forum and a keynote from Foundry president, Si-Young Choi. Attendees at Samsung Foundry’s SAFE Forum were welcomed by Ryan Lee, head of the business’ Design Enablement team. John In-Young… Read More
Micron and Memory – Slamming on brakes after going off the cliff without skidmarks
-Micron slams on the brakes of capacity & capex-
-But memory market is already over the cliff without skid marks
-It will likely take at least a year to sop up excess capacity
-Collateral impact on Samsung & others even more important
Micron hitting the brakes after memory market already impacts
Micron capped off an otherwise… Read More
Samsung Foundry Forum & SAFE™ Forum 2022
It has been an exciting time in the semiconductor industry and the excitement is far from over. Years 2022 and 2023 will be more challenging in many different ways and live activities have just begun. The cornerstones to the semiconductor industry are the foundries so I look forward to the live foundry events coming up in October,… Read More
Application-Specific Lithography: 5nm Node Gate Patterning
It has recently been revealed that the N5 node from TSMC has a minimum gate pitch of 51 nm [1,2] with a channel length as small as 6 nm [2]. Such a tight channel length entails tight CD control in the patterning process, well under 0.5 nm. What are the possible lithography scenarios?
Blur Limitations for EUV Exposure
A state-of-the-art
Does SMIC have 7nm and if so, what does it mean
Recently TechInsights analyzed a Bitcoin Miner chip fabbed at SMIC and declared SMIC has a 7nm process. There has been some debate as to whether the SMIC process is really 7nm and what it means if it is 7nm. I wanted to discuss the case for and against the process being 7nm, and what I think it means.
First off, I want to say I am not going … Read More


Is Intel About to Take Flight?