TSMC and Solido on Variation-Aware Design of Memory and Standard Cell at Advanced Process Nodes

TSMC and Solido on Variation-Aware Design of Memory and Standard Cell at Advanced Process Nodes
by Daniel Nenni on 05-10-2016 at 12:00 pm

Being that TSMC and Solido are founding members of SemiWiki, you should be able find out everything you ever wanted to know on their respective landing pages. If not, just ask a question in the SemiWiki forum and I can assure you it will be answered in great detail. And here are some other interesting 2015 factoids from Solido:… Read More


Semiconductor capital spending slow in 2016

Semiconductor capital spending slow in 2016
by Bill Jewell on 05-01-2016 at 12:00 pm

The outlook for semiconductor capital expenditures (capex) in 2016 is weak. Gartner’s January 2016 forecast called for a decline of 4.7%. IC Insights in February projected a 0.8% decline. The table below shows the Gartner forecast along with the capex forecasts from the top three spenders (Intel, Samsung and TSMC) which… Read More


EUV is coming but will we need it?

EUV is coming but will we need it?
by Scotten Jones on 04-12-2016 at 4:00 pm

I have written multiple articles about this year’s SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference describing all of the progress EUV has made in the last year. Source power is improving, photoresists are getting faster, prototype pellicles are in testing, multiple sites around the world are exposing wafers by the thousands and more. Read More


Fabless vs IDM for Data Centers: Silicon Photonics as a Disruptive Force?

Fabless vs IDM for Data Centers: Silicon Photonics as a Disruptive Force?
by Mitch Heins on 04-07-2016 at 7:00 am

I recently received a copy of a book entitled Silicon Photonics III (Amazon) and while perusing the book I was captured by the first chapter entitled ‘Silicon Optical Interposers for High-Density Optical Interconnects’. The chapter covered the work of a team in Japan on an idea they termed “on-chip servers” and “on-board data … Read More


TSMC and Flex Logix?

TSMC and Flex Logix?
by Daniel Nenni on 03-26-2016 at 7:00 am

There was a lot to learn at the TSMC Technical Symposium last week, in the keynotes for sure but also in the halls and exhibits. Tom Dillinger did a nice job covering the keynotes in his posts Key Take aways from the TSMC Technology Symposium Part 1 and Part 2 but there was something interesting that many people may have missed in the exhibit… Read More


10nm SRAM Projections – Who will lead

10nm SRAM Projections – Who will lead
by Scotten Jones on 03-25-2016 at 12:00 pm

At ISSCC this year Samsung published a paper entitled “A 10nm FinFET 128Mb SRAM with Assist Adjustment System for Power, Performance, and Area Optimization. In the paper Samsung disclosed a high density 6T SRAM cell size of 0.040µm[SUP]2[/SUP]. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how this cell size stacks … Read More


Key Takeaways from the TSMC Technology Symposium Part 2

Key Takeaways from the TSMC Technology Symposium Part 2
by Tom Dillinger on 03-22-2016 at 4:00 pm

In Part 1, we reviewed four of the highlights of the recent TSMC Technology Symposium in San Jose. This article details the “Final Four” key takeaways from the TSMC presentations, and includes a few comments about the advanced technology research that TSMC is conducting.… Read More


TSMC 2016 Technology Symposium and Apple SoCs!

TSMC 2016 Technology Symposium and Apple SoCs!
by Daniel Nenni on 03-08-2016 at 4:00 pm

It is that time again, time for the originators of the pure-play foundry business to update their top customers and partners on the latest process technology developments and schedules. More specifically, all of the TSMC FinFET processes (16nm, 10nm, 7nm, and beyond), TSMC IP portfolio (CMOS image sensor, Embedded Flash, Power… Read More