COVID-19 Collateral Chip Collision – Will Fabs & Foundries Flounder?

COVID-19 Collateral Chip Collision – Will Fabs & Foundries Flounder?
by Robert Maire on 03-05-2020 at 6:00 am

Corvid 19 SemiWiki

Corona Fab Impact –
lower production/raise prices
Chip production supply chain may break
It could temporarily fix memory oversupply
Could it risk the fall roll out of next Iphone

The ” Two week tango” – Waiting games at fabs
When a highly specialized piece of semiconductor equipment misbehaves to the… Read More


TSMC Unveils Details of 5nm CMOS Production Technology Platform Featuring EUV and High Mobility Channel FinFETs at IEDM2019

TSMC Unveils Details of 5nm CMOS Production Technology Platform Featuring EUV and High Mobility Channel FinFETs at IEDM2019
by Don Draper on 02-05-2020 at 10:00 am

Diagram of BEOL metallization comparing EUV vs. immersion photolithography

Back in April, 2019, TSMC announced that they were introducing their 5 nm technology in risk production and now at IEDM 2019 they brought forth a detailed description of the process which has passed 1000 hour HTOL and will be in high volume production in 1H 2020.  This 5nm technology is a full node scaling from 7nm using smart scaling… Read More


Advanced CMOS Technology 2020 (The 10/7/5 NM Nodes)

Advanced CMOS Technology 2020 (The 10/7/5 NM Nodes)
by Daniel Nenni on 01-28-2020 at 10:00 am

Our friends at Threshold Systems have a new class that may be of interest to you. It’s an updated version of the Advanced CMOS Technology class held last May. As part of the previous class we did a five part series on The Evolution of the Extension Implant which you can see on the Threshold Systems SemiWiki landing page HERE. And… Read More


KLAC- Very Strong Sept & Guide-Foundry up 50%- 5NM & EUV drivers- Outperforming

KLAC- Very Strong Sept & Guide-Foundry up 50%- 5NM & EUV drivers- Outperforming
by Robert Maire on 11-05-2019 at 6:00 am

  • KLAC Strong Beat on Both Sept Q & Dec Guide
  • Foundry/logic (TSMC) up 50% H2 vs H1
  • Gen 5 acceptance and 5NM rollout drive future

Strong beat in Sept results and Dec Guide
KLAC reported revenue of $1.41B and EPS of $2.48 handily beating street estimates of $1.5B and $2.20 in EPS. More importantly the company guided December to be revenues… Read More


ASML – In Line Qtr but big bookings – Logic Strong! Memory ? EUV?

ASML – In Line Qtr but big bookings – Logic Strong! Memory ? EUV?
by Robert Maire on 10-20-2019 at 6:00 am

ASML in line QTR with big Orders
Near term slippage w long term upside
Logic is strong but memory recovery unknown
EUV is finally a reality/commercialized

In line quarter- supplier slippage expected in Q4
Results were revenues of Euro 3B and EPS of Euro 1.49, more or less in line with earnings estimate if a tad bit light in revenue. … Read More


Lithography For Advanced Packaging Equipment

Lithography For Advanced Packaging Equipment
by Robert Castellano on 06-24-2019 at 10:00 am

Advanced IC packaging, such as fan-out WLP (Wafer Level Packaging) and 2.5D TSV (Through Silicon Via) will drive the packaging equipment market, particularly lithography. This will help specific equipment manufacturers in 2019, since the WFE (Wafer Front End) market will drop 17%. But the Back-End lithography market, led … Read More


Samsung Foundry Update 2019

Samsung Foundry Update 2019
by Tom Dillinger on 06-08-2019 at 5:00 am

Samsung Foundry recently held their 4th annual technology forum in Santa Clara.  This article reviews the highlights of the presentations.  There were two prevalent themes throughout – focused execution on the current process roadmap, and the introduction of the 3nm process node features and schedule.

Before getting into … Read More


Chips are the bleeding edge of China trade war Recovery

Chips are the bleeding edge of China trade war Recovery
by Robert Maire on 05-17-2019 at 7:00 am

Last week we warned of a further down leg due to China trade. We were surprised how quickly our prediction came true as it appears we are now in the midst of giving back all the upside built in to stocks based on a peaceful resolution of the trade conflict which obviously isn’t happening.

Many of the semi stocks we cover were down… Read More


SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference – Imec and Veeco on EUV

SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference – Imec and Veeco on EUV
by Scotten Jones on 04-19-2019 at 12:00 pm

At the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference Imec presented several papers on EUV and Veeco presented about etching for EUV masks. I had the opportunity to see the presentations and speak with some of the authors. In this article I will summarize the key issues around EUV based on this research.

EUV is ramping up into high volume 7nm… Read More


TSMC Q1 2019 Earnings Call Discussion!

TSMC Q1 2019 Earnings Call Discussion!
by Daniel Nenni on 04-19-2019 at 7:00 am

It’s no coincidence that the TSMC Symposium is right after the Q1 earnings call. This will allow TSMC to talk more freely and they certainly will, my opinion. It is a very interesting time in the semiconductor industry and TSMC, being the bellwether, can tell us what will happen the rest of the year and give us some 2020 insights.… Read More