Unless you have been living under a rock for the last decade, you can’t help but notice the increased importance of RF: bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, LTE, NFC, RFID and more. There is a lot of digital design associated with these standards, especially the highest bandwidth ones, but they also all contain a radio, often called a modem.… Read More
Is Semiconductor Technology a Strategic Industry?
Dependence on electronics is acute in all fields today. This includes both civilian and military use. Whether the technology used is state of the art or classic in nature, importance is pointed to the necessity of solid state electronic hardware in everyday life. In such an environment the need to ensure the availability of semiconductors… Read More
Intel and Samsung in Barcelona
This week it was Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Everyone who is anyone in mobile is there. Unfortunately I’m not since Barcelona is one of my favorite cities to visit. Two companies that set high expectations before the show were Samsung and Intel.
Samsung announced the new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones on Sunday.… Read More
Intel NOT Inside Sematech?
Rumor that Intel has quit Sematech confirmed by website?
Potential industry impact-
Is this a consolidation by-product?
Do we need a trade group?
Does it benefit Intel?
We have heard from several sources over the last few days that Intel has quit Sematech, the semiconductor industry trade group focused on technology development… Read More
Three Colorful Bytes from the NXP History
The proposed merger of NXP and Freescale, which creates a bigger semiconductor outfit, also brings forth some fascinating history bytes from the technology heritage that these two spin-offs carry from their respective corporate parents. In 2006, Philips Electronics sold its chip business division Philips Semiconductors… Read More
3D-IC: Embedded Passives
IEDM 2014 was held in the second week of December 2014 in San Francisco. The excitement is over now and the dust has settled. Last week, at my leisure, I was glancing through the conference proceedings and short course material from IEDM 2014, when a slide from the 3DIC short course caught my attention. The slide presented below gives… Read More
EUV Makes Progress and Other Observations From SPIE
The SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference is the world’s premier conference for patterning techniques utilized to manufacture semiconductors. At any given time during the conference there are multiple parallel sessions so it is impossible to see all of the papers presented. Prior to the conference I reviewed and blogged on … Read More
Who Leads Semiconductor Innovation?
Semiconductor business is highly dependent on technology and that changes very rapidly in the semiconductor space. It’s important to recognize the importance of research and innovation activities in this space. In my last article on 7nm technology node, one respondent commented, very rightly, “It’s important to have competition… Read More
Vietnam: Rising Star in Electronics
I recently returned from a trip to Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. The trip was for pleasure, not business, but I could not help but notice the boom in economic activity. The coastal cities of Hai Phong, Da Nang and NHA Trang were trying to outdo each other in building hotels, bridges and amusement parks – largely to cater to foreign… Read More
Samsung 14nm IS in Production!
There is quite a debate raging on whether Samsung Foundry is truly in production at 14nm. The word amongst the fabless semiconductor ecosystem is yes and this comes from two very large fabless companies that are reportedly using Samsung for 14nm and have even started looking at Samsung 10nm. Of course you can Google for stories by… Read More
Flynn Was Right: How a 2003 Warning Foretold Today’s Architectural Pivot