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Semiconductor Device Test

The Year in Semiconductor Device Test

Is semiconductor device test non-value added? Certainly, some aspects are unchanging. Test is one of the three means to guarantee parts in addition to characterization and the design itself. Given the market backdrop – across automotive, computing, and advanced packaging – new test challenges and value adds have emerged. Three...

IFTLE 583: DoD funding for U.S. Based Substrate Manufacturing

IFTLE has spent significant time discussing the lack of U.S.-based substrate manufacturing. Although packages such as the ball-grid array (BGA) were invented by U.S. companies like Motorola, production capacity was all off-shored to Asia years ago. Having competent U.S. production capacity has always been part of the US reshoring program....

Fostering Innovation from Within

As many organizations in the industry are grappling for external resources, Onto Innovation has expertly chosen to look inward. We recognize the unmatched talent that exists at our company already and have implemented a course of action that directly taps into that. Our employees continuously push the boundaries of innovation,...

Announcing the Winners of the 2024 3D InCites Awards

It was an interesting year for the 2024 3D InCites Awards as we changed our processes, criteria, and categories to improve the program. We intended to provide more opportunities for participation across the heterogeneous integration supply chain, and we are happy with the outcome. A special thank you to the...

January Member Achievements, New Hires and Grand Openings

Members of the 3D InCites community hit the year running by celebrating milestones, new hires, promotions, and grand openings. Here are some highlights that caught our attention. Amkor Technology, Inc. hosted DesignCon2024 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA Among the speakers was Amkor’s Ruben Fuentes, VP...

IFTLE 582: SK hynix Looks at the Future of Memory Packaging for AI

At this year’s IEEE International Electron Device Meeting, [IEDM] (December in San Francisco) SK hynix gave an interesting look at “Advanced Packaging Technology in Memory Applications for Future Generative AI Era”. [Generative AI creates new content through the use of machine learning models such as generative adversarial networks. Such frameworks...

Semiconductor Cycle

The Semiconductor Cycle: Looking Into the Future

“It ain’t over till it’s over.” is a frequently used Yogi Berra saying. The current semiconductor cycle has that feeling. While for some parts it appears to be over, for other parts it looks like most segments are at the bottom, and there are no strong growth indicators for the...

ESG - solar bed

ESG Resolutions

Happy 2024! For many the start of the New Year includes resolutions or goals to try to accomplish throughout the year. From a sustainability standpoint, this means that the ESG teams are collecting the data from 2023 to determine if they achieved what they had published in their 2022 sustainability...

A conversation with SEMI's Ajit Manocha

Leading The Charge to One Trillion Dollars

A Conversation About Leadership with SEMI CEO Ajit Manocha For the past few years, we’ve heard semiconductor market analysts prognosticate that based on estimated demand, semiconductors have the potential to become a $1Trillion industry in the next 7-10 years. This number is based on analysts’ projections of driving markets including...

Figure 3: High-speed wafer transfer via the Trymax equipment front-end module.

When Plasma Matters: Three Reasons to Choose Plasma

Every metal layer on a wafer, from M1 at the front end to redistribution for wafer-level packaging (WLP), requires patterning. Selective material removal, including etching oxides and metals, often becomes the critical path. It is essential to thoroughly strip photoresist and minimize contamination to achieve the desired yield. Plasma etching...

Semiconductor Sustainability

Are We Moving Fast Enough on Semiconductor Sustainability?

We continue to deal with a paradox: semiconductor chips are necessary to support digitalization and society’s transition to lower carbon power and transportation. At the same time, semiconductor manufacturing is resource- and energy-intensive. Efficiency improvements are one part of the solution, but they can only take us so far. There’s...

small business perspective of the Chips Act

IFTLE 581: The National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program

As IFTLE has explained previously, Investments in semiconductors will not succeed without investments in advanced packaging. The CHIPS for America program, agreeing with this premise, has announced that it will support the development of advanced packaging technology in the United States that can be transferred to manufacturing facilities, including recipients...

SEMI ISS 2024

SEMI ISS 2024: Heavy Winds Make It Tough to Chart A Course

As they do every year, semiconductor industry leaders gathered in Half Moon Bay, CA in early January for SEMI ISS 2024 to take stock of the economic trends and market drivers to set their corporate strategies for 2024. Appropriately, the weather outside the Ritz-Carlton, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, matched the...

This. Is. Community.

2023 was a year of growth and change for 3D InCites, as well as me personally. In April, I left my role at Kiterocket and the security of a salary and benefits to follow my passion and focus full-time on supporting the 3D InCites Community. It was time, and I...

Trillion Transistors at IEDM

IEDM 2023: The Trillion Transistor Dilemma

It all depends upon who you talk to at IEDM 2023. The semiconductor chip industry is either moving into a new realm that will be based upon chiplet technology, or the industry is continuing to drive front-end and backend technology forward and the two technologies are morphing together to drive...

advanced packaging model

Will a New Advanced Packaging Foundry Model Extend Moore’s Law?

Challenges to 3DHI and chiplets remain, but new advanced packaging foundry solutions are stacking up The industry consensus is that the path to extending Moore’s Law lies in heterogeneous integration (HI) and chiplet architectures. Why, then, are we still waiting for the full adoption of HI, 3DHI, and chiplets? The...

How Trymax is Navigating the Global Talent Shortage

How Trymax is Navigating the Global Talent Shortage

The “Global Talent Shortage” is a buzzword that everybody uses nowadays. But what does it mean? The most used definition I found was that employers cannot find the people they need with the right blend of technical skills and human strengths. The talent shortage is a significant concern in the...

NIST Chiplet Interfaces Technology Standards Workshop

IFTLE 580: NIST Chiplet Interfaces Technology Standards Workshop

NIST held the “Chiplet Interfaces Technical Standards Workshop” at the NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in December 2023. During this workshop, technical experts from industry, academia, standards-setting organizations, and industry alliances gathered to discuss and prioritize specific standards efforts related to chiplet-based architectures with a focus on physical and logical...

SCALE

IFTLE 579: Workforce Development – SCALE

The Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement (SCALE) program is the nation’s preeminent workforce development effort, funded by the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Trusted and Assured Microelectronics program and managed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division. SCALE has a mission to bolster next-generation workforce development to bring the United States...

Semiconductor Sustainability at IEDM 2023

The Semiconductor industry has been ramping up its focus on sustainability for the past three to four years. Strong sustainability efforts have been in place for ST Microelectronics and Intel since 2011 and have trickled down to their suppliers through a sustainability focus on the supply chain. When Apple and...