The majority of EUV production is on 5nm and 3nm node, implemented by late 2022. Metal oxide resists have not been brought into volume production yet [1,2], meaning that only organic chemically amplified resists (CARs) have been used instead until now. These resists have a typical absorption coefficient of 5/um [3,4], which means





Cadence Debuts Celsius Studio for In-Design Thermal Optimization
Continuing the multiphysics theme, I talked recently with Melika Roshandell (Product Management Director at Cadence) on the continuing convergence between MCAD and ECAD. You should know first that Melika has a PhD in mechanical engineering and an extensive background in thermal engineering at Broadcom and Qualcomm, all very… Read More
Handling Preprocessed Files in a Hardware IDE
For several years now, I’ve been meeting with AMIQ EDA co-founder Cristian Amitroaie every few months to discuss the state of the industry, key trends in design and verification, and the ways that they help facilitate and accelerate chip development. I noticed an interesting new feature mentioned in their latest press release… Read More
Chiplet ecosystems enable multi-vendor designs
Chiplets dominate semiconductor industry conversations right now – and after the recent Chiplet Summit, we expect the intensity to go up a couple of notches. One company name often heard is Blue Cheetah, and we had the opportunity to sit down with them recently to discuss their views and their just-announced design win at Tenstorrent.… Read More
AMAT – Flattish QTR Flattish Guide – Improving 2024 – Memory and Logic up, ICAPs Down
– AMAT slightly better than expected, flat & guides flat but > expected
– Expects better 2024- Systems flat, service up, display down
– China risk remains high at 45%- $200M Sculpta expected in 2024
– HBM 5% of industry but not a lot of tool sales- but high growth
Still bumping along with flattish … Read More
ISS 2024 – Logic 2034 – Technology, Economics, and Sustainability
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
Intel should be the Free World’s Plan A Not Plan B, and we need the US Government to step in
There are trillions of dollars at stake with AI and huge geopolitical consequences. However, the weak foundation to American technological power is their dependence on Taiwan and TSMC, which is where most advanced silicon is manufactured. America has also been taking China to the ropes lately in their economic/technology proxy… Read More
Podcast EP208: A Conversation with This Year’s Kaufman Award Recipient, Dr. Lawrence Pileggi
Dan is joined by Dr. Lawrence Pileggi, Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Larry is the 2023 Phil Kaufman Award recipient for distinguished contributions to Electronic System Design. His pioneering contributions include circuit simulation and optimization… Read More
Strong End to 2023 Drives Healthy 2024
The global semiconductor market grew 8.4% in 4Q 2023 from 3Q 2023, according to WSTS. The 8.4% gain was the highest quarter-to-quarter growth since 9.1% in 2Q 2021. This was also the highest 3Q to 4Q increase in 20 years, since an 11% rise in 4Q 2003. 4Q 2023 was up 11.6% from a year ago, following five quarters of negative year-to-year… Read More
2024 Outlook with Laura Long of Axiomise
Axiomise pioneered the adoption of formal verification in the semiconductor industry since 2017. Led by visionary CEO, Dr. Ashish Darbari, who has 63 patents in formal verification, and Neil Dunlop an industry veteran with 40 years of experience, Axiomise has helped twenty customers over the last six years by providing them… Read More
Flynn Was Right: How a 2003 Warning Foretold Today’s Architectural Pivot