EUV and DSA from Imec and #semiconwest

EUV and DSA from Imec and #semiconwest
by Paul McLellan on 07-14-2014 at 7:00 am

All the details of how we will build semiconductors going forward depend on whether we have EUV in our arsenal or not. Imec is very close to this since they work closely with ASML (who are about an hour and half’s drive away just outside Eindhoven in the Netherlands). At the imec technology symposium we were given a quick summary… Read More


Imec’s Process Secret Decoder Ring

Imec’s Process Secret Decoder Ring
by Paul McLellan on 07-12-2014 at 11:00 am

To wrap up Semicon West, let’s go back to Monday and the imec presentations. In fact, An Steegen’s presentation titled The Semiconductor Roadmap. She covered a lot of ground, but some of her slides contain a wealth of information. Let’s look at the options for 10nm, 7nm and a little 5nm, what imec call N10, N7 and… Read More


Bob Metcalfe Keynote at #semiconwest

Bob Metcalfe Keynote at #semiconwest
by Paul McLellan on 07-10-2014 at 9:00 am

My PhD is in distributed file systems so one of the key networking papers was Metcalfe and Boggs, 1976. It was titled Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks. This was the paper that introduced the world to Ethernet and to Bob Metcalfe. He was on stage yesterday here at Semicon West to give the afternoon… Read More


IMEC Technology Symposium

IMEC Technology Symposium
by Paul McLellan on 07-08-2014 at 12:52 pm

Yesterday I attended the IMEC Technology Forum at Semicon West. As always with IMEC, they present so much information it is like drinking from a firehose. I’ll say more about the future of process technology in a blog later this week, but this blog is about IMEC itself. It is an amazing success story. Let’s face it, if you were going … Read More


GlobalFoundries Goes to Semicon West

GlobalFoundries Goes to Semicon West
by Paul McLellan on 07-04-2014 at 8:38 pm

Next week it is Semicon West, the big equipment vendor tradeshow. I love to go since EDA and semiconductor and all the stuff we are interested in here at Semiwiki are driven by equipment capabilities, especially lithography. The highest viewed blogs I write tend to be ones on technologies that are just a bit out beyond the stuff people… Read More


SEMICON West 2014 Preview

SEMICON West 2014 Preview
by Paul McLellan on 05-27-2014 at 12:46 pm

There is a really big conference coming up in San Francisco…no, not DAC although of course that is coming up too. I’m talking about SEMICON West which is much bigger, filling all 3 Moscone exhibit halls. It is July 8-10th. It is, of course, the semiconductor equipment industry (and solar) show.

The opening keynote on… Read More


More Moore or No More?

More Moore or No More?
by Daniel Nenni on 05-22-2014 at 11:30 pm

Moore’s is still the law, and device scaling remains the key focus of front-end process research, however next-generation technologies–and the Big Data, cloud computing world that supports mobile, IoT, and other next-gen applications–are the new drivers, bringing new demands and challenges running Read More


New Method for Metrology with sub-10 nm Lithrography

New Method for Metrology with sub-10 nm Lithrography
by Daniel Nenni on 05-06-2014 at 6:00 pm

NewPath Research will describe their new method for nanoscale carrier profiling in semiconductors on May 19[SUP]th[/SUP] at the Annual SEMI Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC) in Saratoga Springs, NY. This new method is intended to fill the gap that has been addressed in the Roadmaps for the semiconductor… Read More


Strong 2014 for Semiconductor Equipment and CapEx

Strong 2014 for Semiconductor Equipment and CapEx
by Bill Jewell on 04-24-2014 at 9:00 pm

Spending on semiconductor manufacturing equipment is headed for healthy growth in 2014. The latest data from SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) shows March 2014 three-month-average billings for semiconductor manufacturing equipment were up 16% from February 2014 and up 31% from a year ago. Bookings… Read More


Will IoT Drive the Next Semiconductor Revolution?

Will IoT Drive the Next Semiconductor Revolution?
by Daniel Nenni on 04-14-2014 at 9:00 pm

To further my quest to comprehend the latest trends in the semiconductor industry continues, I spent the morning with SEMI at the “The Silicon Valley Breakfast Forum: Internet of Things (IoT) – Driving the Microelectronics Revolution” seminar. I’m a big fan of the breakfast seminar concept. I’m up early anyway and it is … Read More