5nm Chips? Yes, but When?

5nm Chips? Yes, but When?
by Pawan Fangaria on 01-31-2016 at 7:00 am

For any invention, technical proof of concept or prototyping happens years ahead of the invention being infused into actual products. When we talk about 5nm chip manufacturing, a test chip was already prototyped in last October, thanks to Cadence and Imec. Details about this chip can be found in a blog at Semiwiki (link is given … Read More


Coventor ASML IMEC: The last half nanometer

Coventor ASML IMEC: The last half nanometer
by Scotten Jones on 01-19-2016 at 4:00 pm

On Tuesday evening December 8[SUP]th[/SUP] at IEDM, Coventor held a panel discussion entitled the “The last half nanometer”. Coventor is a leading provider of simulation software used to design processes. This is my third year attending the Coventor panel discussion at IEDM and they are always excellent with very strong panels… Read More


IEDM Blogs – Part 7 – IMEC Technology Forum – Part 2

IEDM Blogs – Part 7 – IMEC Technology Forum – Part 2
by Scotten Jones on 01-08-2016 at 7:00 am

On Sunday evening December 6[SUP]th[/SUP] before IEDM, IMEC held the IMEC Technology Forum (ITF). In part 1 of this blog I discussed the introduction and the first two presentations given by An Steegen and Mark Rodder. In this blog I will discuss the final two presentations. Part 1 can be accessed here.… Read More


IEDM Blogs – Part 6 – IMEC Technology Forum – Part 1

IEDM Blogs – Part 6 – IMEC Technology Forum – Part 1
by Scotten Jones on 01-05-2016 at 10:00 am

On Sunday evening December 6[SUP]th[/SUP] before IEDM, IMEC held the IMEC Technology Forum (ITF). The ITF was held at the Belgium ambassador’s residence, a really beautiful setting for a meeting.

The ITF began with a brief welcome by the Belgium ambassador followed by a brief introduction to IMEC. IMEC is a research institute … Read More


IEDM Blogs – Part 4 – IMEC InGaAs Channel for 3D NAND

IEDM Blogs – Part 4 – IMEC InGaAs Channel for 3D NAND
by Scotten Jones on 12-28-2015 at 4:00 pm

At IEDM IMEC presented “MOCVD In[SUB]1-x[/SUB]Ga[SUB]x[/SUB]As high mobility channel for 3-D NAND Memory” authored by E. Capogreco, J. G. Lisoni, A. Arreghini, A. Subirats, B. Kunert, W. Guo, T. Maurice, C.-L. Tan, R. Degraeve, K. De Meyer, G. Van den bosch, and J. Van Houdt.

On December 15[SUP]th[/SUP] I had the opportunity … Read More


IEDM 2015 Blogs – Part 1 – Overview

IEDM 2015 Blogs – Part 1 – Overview
by Scotten Jones on 12-11-2015 at 7:00 am

The International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) is one of, if not the premier conference for semiconductor process technology. The 2015 meeting just finished up on Wednesday, December 9th.

This year’s meeting was held from Saturday, December 5[SUP]th[/SUP] through Wednesday, December 9[SUP]th[/SUP] in Washington DC.… Read More


IMEC and Cadence Disclose 5nm Test Chip

IMEC and Cadence Disclose 5nm Test Chip
by Scotten Jones on 10-09-2015 at 7:00 am

Recently imec and Cadence disclosed that they had fabricated 5nm test chips. This afternoon Dan Nenni and I had a conference call with Praveen Raghavan, principal engineer at imec, and Vassilios Gerousis, distinguished engineer at Cadence to get more details on what the test chip is and what was learned.

First off Vassilios really… Read More


SEMICON Day 2: Outlook and Keynote Panel

SEMICON Day 2: Outlook and Keynote Panel
by Paul McLellan on 07-15-2015 at 7:00 am

The second day of SEMICON West opened with a press conference. Since it was at 7.30 in the morning we all needed the coffee that they provided. For those of us that remember the glory days of DAC some of the statistics were depressing:

  • 45th year (hey, we got them beat on at least one statistic)
  • 692 exhibitors
  • 136 new exhibitors (about
Read More

Imec’s An Steegen Talks Future Process Technology

Imec’s An Steegen Talks Future Process Technology
by Paul McLellan on 06-27-2015 at 7:00 am

I’m an An Steegen groupie. Once or twice a year I see a presentation by her and it is a great summary in a ridiculously short period of time of all the potential upcoming semiconductor technologies. Yesterday was my annual fix at the imec Technology Forum (ITF). Today I got to sit down with her at the conference center.

An is different… Read More


Heard on the Street at ITF

Heard on the Street at ITF
by Paul McLellan on 06-25-2015 at 7:00 pm

As I said yesterday, I’m at the imec Technology Forum (ITF) in Brussels. So what have I learned from all the people that I’ve interacted with.

There were two press releases announced at a press conference yesterday. The first was that imec was expanding its relationship with Toshiba and Sandisk. This covers bringing… Read More