At the 2018 European MEMS, Imaging and Sensors Summits, I detected a shift in sentiment around the likelihood (and the feasibility) that fully-autonomous vehicles are poised to take to the roads in the next two years. In reality, fully-autonomous vehicles won’t be rolling off the assembly lines any time soon, if ever. The readiness of sensor systems and the high cost of manufacturing these cars ... »
Last week, at the co-located 2018 European MEMS and Sensors/Imaging and Sensors Summits, held in Grenoble, France, I had the pleasure of gathering with 380 attendees from 21 companies from around the world to discuss the latest trends and technologies in MEMS, imaging, and sensors. Topics of discussion included the latest MEMS, imaging, and sensor market trends; application spaces such as automoti... »
It’s almost ironic. As CMOS scaling (aka: Moore’s Law) has slowed due to the increased complexity and cost of achieving smaller nodes, the focus has shifted to advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration to meet demands for microelectronics devices targeting the internet of things (IoT) market. These devices perform a variety of functions (sensing, processing, remembering, transmitting) i... »
It used to be that people thought about metrology for front-end process control and inspection for advanced packaging. As wafer level packaging (WLP) and heterogeneous integration (HI) approaches became more advanced, metrology processes began creeping into back-end process control, where measurement becomes trickier and more diversified. As part of the 3D InCites Award Winners series, I spoke wit... »
The number is sobering: according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor of Statistics, 16.9% of chemical engineers and 12.3% of electrical/electronics engineers in the US are women. For racial diversity, the situation is even worse. These grave statistics came to light during a recent panel discussion during SEMICON West, in its Workforce Pavilion. Here, Jessica Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Rogue Valley Mic... »
Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) are driving more than just the semiconductor market. They also drove the conversations I had with everyone I spoke with at and around SEMICON West 2018. Turns out people had lots to talk about. AI and Machine Learning I often think back to the 2010 MEMS Executive Summit in Scottsdale Arizona, when Karen Lightman declare... »
The world wants intelligence in everything, especially things that aren’t nailed down like autonomous cars, and the internet of things (IoT) devices. And suddenly, semiconductors are the hottest game in town. Here’s how some of these trends are impacting suppliers that I spoke with at SEMICON West. The importance of purity While Entegris is agnostic to megatrends, Jim O’Neill, CTO, still... »
Through-silicon vias (TSVs) have been firmly established as a method of interconnect that enables high bandwidth and low latency between dies at extremely low power dissipation. Used for years in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), compound semiconductors, and image sensors, TSVs are now also in mainstream production for 2.5D interposer technologies, and for stacking die to create high-bandwidt... »
The people have spoken! The results of last week’s poll are in, and it looks like the majority of those who participated think we should keep it simple. When it comes to heterogeneous integration nomenclature for package architectures, it should be 2D or 3D. The Back Story The term “2.5D” has been a topic of debate in the advanced packaging world ever since it was first added to the industry... »
Well, that was interesting. SEMICON West 2018 just wrapped up, and I’m not quite sure what just happened. This year’s event was… for lack of a better word… different. All I could think of as I looked around the Moscone Center upon arrival was “ready or not, SEMICON West 2018 is here, emphasis on ‘or not.’” While I generally endeavor to paint a rosy picture, I have to remember that ... »
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