Test and Inspection

Multitest: Handling the Mobility Market

What better way to wrap up a busy week at SEMICON West 2013 than a site visit? After three days of interviews and PowerPoints, I was ready for some some hands-on demonstration. Barbara Loferer, marketing manager of Multitest, was concluding an open-house week at the company’s San Jose facility to promote...

TSV Inspection

NORDSON: Newcomers to 3D ICs

This is part of a series of short interviews, based on face-to-face meetings at SEMICON West 2013. As 3D ICs get closer to volume manufacturing, we’re seeing newcomers joining the 3D IC party with solutions that help along established process flows, and fill in gaps. Longtime suppliers to the mainstream...

Momentum Builds for the 2013 3D InCites Awards

Subscribers are practically blowing up 3D InCites as they duke it out online and race the  July 3rd deadline for casting their ballots in the public opinion poll for this inaugural 3D InCites Awards; which is great because the first 3D InCites Awards Breakfast, co-presented by 3D InCites and TechSearch...

FormFactor: NanoPierce Contactor

Product Description FormFactor’s NanoPierce™ contactor is a socket solution for direct testing of TSVs and micro-bump arrays for 3D IC integration. A disruptive test technology designed specifically for TSV applications, it is being used by semiconductor manufacturers in their TSV development programs. The technology was honored earlier this year at...

Metryx: Mentor Mass Metrology Tool

Product Description Mass metrology is the measurement of the mass change on a wafer as a result of a wafer processing step. Mass metrology enables inline measurement on product wafers, enabling an increase in test coverage with high throughput. Mass as an SPC response has been adopted by 200mm and...

A Lull in 3D Activity or Stealth Mode?

An industry colleague commented to me recently that the press seems to have lost interest in 3DIC. As probably the industry’s most avid follower and writer of 3D related news, I had to disagree – its not that we’ve lost interest, its just that there seems to be a lull...

2013 Predictions for 3D ICs as reported by SPN

While most of the semiconductor trade publications wrapped up their 2013 prediction posts by mid January, Semiconductor Packaging News (SPN) forged on with its original annual Viewpoints series right up until last week. I spent some time pouring over the musings of industry executives’ contributions. Many discuss the proliferation of mobile...

“Known Good Die” has a new name

After 20 years of chasing elusive Known Good Die (KGD) to achieve high yielding advanced interconnect technologies, the semiconductor industry has come to the conclusion that its time to take a different approach. It’s called Probably Good Die, and when it comes to 2.5D and 3D ICs, particularly for Memory,...

3D Technology Features in Review

The latest digital issues of Chip Scale Review and  iMicronews’ 3D Packaging magazines hit the virtual “stands” last week, and perhaps in honor if the 3D ASIP Conference that gets underway later this week, there are some hot new 3D technologies being featured. But first, to bring everyone up to...

3D IC Educational Opportunities

If you have an hour of professional development time coming to you, I advise that you spend it watching this webinar on TSV and Interposer: modeling, design and characterization, presented by Darryl Kostka, of Computer Simulation Technology (CST).  But don’t just take my word for it! It comes highly recommended...