TSMC covered their specialty technologies in great detail. Specialty is what we inside the ecosystem used to call weird stuff meaning non-mainstream and fairly difficult to do on leading edge processes. Specialty technologies will play an even more important part of semiconductor design with the advent of chiplets where die… Read More
Tag: tsmc
TSMC 2023 North America Technology Symposium Overview Part 3
TSMC’s 3DFabric initiative was a big focus at the symposium, as it should be. I remember when TSMC first went public with CoWos the semiconductor ecosystem, including yours truly, let out a collective sigh wondering why TSMC is venturing into the comparatively low margin world of packaging. Now we know why and it is absolutely… Read More
TSMC 2023 North America Technology Symposium Overview Part 2
The next topic I would like to cover is an update to the TSMC process node roadmap starting with N3. As predicted, N3 will be the most successful node in the TSMC FinFET family. The first version of N3 went into production at the end of last year (Apple) and will roll out with other customers in 2023. There is a reported record amount of … Read More
TSMC 2023 North America Technology Symposium Overview Part 1
The TSMC 2023 North America Technology Symposium happened today so I wanted to start writing about it as there is a lot to cover. I will do summaries and other bloggers will do more in-depth coverage on the technology side in the coming weeks. Having worked in the fabless semiconductor ecosystem the majority of my 40 year semiconductor… Read More
ASML Wavering- Supports our Concern of Second Leg Down for Semis- False Bottom
-ASML weakness is evidence of deeper chip down cycle
-When ASML sneezes other chip equip makers catch a cold
-Will backlog last long enough? Will EUV demand hold up?
-“Unthinkable” event, litho cancelations, could shock industry
ASML has in line quarter but alarm bells ring on wavering outlook
ASML reported Euro6.7B… Read More
Podcast EP153: Suk Lee’s Journey to Intel Foundry Services, with a Look to the Future
Dan is joined by Suk Lee, Vice President of Design Ecosystem Development at Intel Foundry Services. He has over 35 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, with engineering, marketing, and general management positions at LSI Logic, Cadence, TI, Magma Design Automation and TSMC. At TSMC, he was responsible for managing… Read More
TSMC has spent a lot more money on 300mm than you think
Up until November of 2022, IC Knowledge LLC was an independent company and had become the world leader in cost and price modeling of semiconductors. In November 2022 TechInsights acquired IC Knowledge LLC and IC Knowledge LLC is now a TechInsights company.
For many years, IC Knowledge has published a database tracking all the 300mm… Read More
Chiplets, is now their time?
Chiplets appeared on SemiWiki in 2020 and have been a top trending keyword ever since. The question is not IF chiplets will disrupt the semiconductor industry, the question is WHEN? I certainly have voiced my opinion on this (pro chiplet) but let’s hear it from the experts. There was a live panel recently sponsored by Silicon Catalyst… Read More
Resolution vs. Die Size Tradeoff Due to EUV Pupil Rotation
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
IEDM 2023 – 2D Materials – Intel and TSMC
Intel and TSMC make up two of the three leading edge logic companies. At IEDM held in December 2022, Intel presented a paper on 2D Materials and TSMC presented 6 papers. Clearly 2D materials are of great interest at least to two of the three leading edge logic companies. Before diving into the papers, some background context is needed.… Read More