The many idiosyncrasies of EUV lithography affect the resolution that can actually be realized. One which still does not get as much attention as it should is the cross-slit pupil rotation [1-3]. This is a fundamental consequence of using rotational symmetry in ring-field optical systems to control aberrations in reflective… Read More
-Samsung off the same chip cliff as Micron- “No skid marks”
-Samsung may be winning at a game of “Capex Chicken”
-No expectation of recovery any time soon – Consumers weak
-2023 a write off- Recovery will be delayed if spending isn’t
Samsung pre… Read More
TSMC presented two papers on 3nm at the 2022 IEDM; “Critical Process features Enabling Aggressive Contacted Gate Pitch Scaling for 3nm CMOS Technology and Beyond” and “A 3nm CMOS FinFlexTM Platform Technology with Enhanced Power Efficiency and Performance for Mobile SOC and High Performance Computing Applications”.
When … Read More
-Micron announces more production cuts & lower forecast
-DRAM will be negative- NAND sounds barely flat (for now)
-Capital spending to be cut to near zero- essential only
-Will the rest of the industry follow suit?
When Micron first announced… Read More
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
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
The semiconductor market in 2022 is weakening. Driving factors include rising inflation, the Russian war on Ukraine, COVID-19 related shutdowns in China, and lingering supply chain issues. Four of the top 14 semiconductor companies (Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia and Texas Instruments) are expecting lower revenues in 2Q 2022 versus… Read More
As I previously wrote about here, Intel is presenting their Intel 4 process at the VLSI Technology conference. Last Wednesday Bernhard Sell (Ben) from Intel gave the press a briefing on the process and provided us with early access to the paper (embargoed until Sunday 6/12).
“Intel 4 CMOS Technology Featuring Advanced FinFET Transistors… Read More
One of the recent live events I attended was the 2022 GSA Silicon Leadership Summit on May 12th at the Santa Clara Convention Center (my favorite location). This was the first GSA live event in two years so it was a must attend gathering. This event targets semiconductor ecosystem executives (200+ people attended) so there were many… Read More
The VLSI Symposium on Technology & Circuits will be held in Hawaii from June 12th to June 17th. You can register for the conference here.
The tip sheet for the conference has been released and one thing that caught my eye is some data from the Intel 4 paper that Intel will be presenting at the conference.
Intel’s old roadmap had 14nm,… Read More
