Can TSMC Maintain Their Process Technology Lead

Can TSMC Maintain Their Process Technology Lead
by Scotten Jones on 04-29-2020 at 10:00 am

TSMC Process Lead Slides 20200427 Page 1

Recently Seeking Alpha published an article “Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Losing Its Process Leadership To Intel” and Dan Nenni (SemiWiki founder) asked me to take a look at the article and do my own analysis. This is a subject I have followed and published on for many years.

Before I dig into specific process density… Read More


ASML A Scenario More Lumpy While Demand and Tech Remain Solid Despite Covid Delays

ASML A Scenario More Lumpy While Demand and Tech Remain Solid Despite Covid Delays
by Robert Maire on 04-22-2020 at 2:00 pm

ASML SemiWiki 2020

Covid issues create “lumpy” quarters due to delays
Orders & demand remain solid and strong
2020 Year financials intact so far but ignore Qtrs
Taking prudent actions- no buybacks or guidance

As expected, Covid impacts both shipments & supply chain, ignore the near term lumpiness…
ASML reported revenues… Read More


Short vs Long Term Covid19 Impact

Short vs Long Term Covid19 Impact
by Robert Maire on 04-19-2020 at 10:00 am

Covid Semiconductor

-Short term Covid19 impact is primarily logistics related
-Longer term impact is more systemic/demand driven
-Impact will wind through supply chain over several qtrs
-Other issues, such as trade, remain an overhang

Short term versus long term in the semiconductor industry
The stocks declines over the last months seem to indicate… Read More


Newsflash Chip Equip Blockade Back on!

Newsflash Chip Equip Blockade Back on!
by Robert Maire on 03-29-2020 at 2:00 pm

US China Blockade


Blocking chip sales to Huawei back on front burner
Covid19 & China Trade are equally bad
Long lived Uncertainty could “plague” industry sales going forward
Political Predictability worse than Disease Predictability

Reuters broke a story today that the proposed licensing of chip equipment to prevent “bad… Read More


A Forbidden Pitch Combination at Advanced Lithography Nodes

A Forbidden Pitch Combination at Advanced Lithography Nodes
by Fred Chen on 03-06-2020 at 10:00 am

A Forbidden Pitch Combination at Advanced Lithography Nodes

The current leading edge of advanced lithography nodes (e.g., “7nm” or “1Z nm”) features pitches (center-center distances between lines) in the range of 30-40 nm. Whether EUV (13.5 nm wavelength) or ArF (193 nm wavelength) lithography is used, one thing for certain is that the minimum imaged pitch … Read More


TSMC’s 5nm 0.021um2 SRAM Cell Using EUV and High Mobility Channel with Write Assist at ISSCC2020

TSMC’s 5nm 0.021um2 SRAM Cell Using EUV and High Mobility Channel with Write Assist at ISSCC2020
by Don Draper on 03-06-2020 at 6:00 am

Fig. 1 Semiconductor Technology Application Evolution

Technological leadership has long been key to TSMC’s success and they are following up their leadership development of 5nm with the world’s smallest SRAM cell at 0.021um 2 with circuit design details of their write assist techniques necessary to achieve the full potential of this revolutionary technology. In addition to their… Read More


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


LithoVision – Economics in the 3D Era

LithoVision – Economics in the 3D Era
by Scotten Jones on 03-04-2020 at 6:00 am

Slide3

Each year on the Sunday before the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference, Nikon holds their LithoVision event. This year I had the privilege of being invited to speak for the third consecutive year, unfortunately, the event had to be canceled due to concerns over the COVID-19 virus but by the time the event was canceled I had already… Read More


The Tech week that was February 10-14 2020

The Tech week that was February 10-14 2020
by Mark Dyson on 02-16-2020 at 10:00 am

Semiconductor Weekly Summary 1

The new coronavirus outbreak or COVID-19 outbreak, as it is now officially called, continues to dominate the news again this week as currently there is no end forecast to the outbreak, and infection numbers continue to rise. This will have an impact on semiconductor supplies in the coming months and into Q2 as the necessary restrictions… Read More


The Tech Week that was February 3-7 2020

The Tech Week that was February 3-7 2020
by Mark Dyson on 02-09-2020 at 10:00 am

Semiconductor Weekly Summary 1

In a week where the new coronavirus and it’s impact has dominated the news, here is my weekly summary of the key semiconductor and technology news from around the world that you should know but may have missed.

The new coronavirus in China and worldwide is already causing an impact for the electronics supply chain, potentially affecting… Read More