Departments
- Editorial
  - Reduced capex: The new power play
    The semiconductor industry has matured by most measures. With one exception, it is profitable, and managers appear to have figured out how to balance supply (capacity) with demand.
- World News
  - BUSINESS TRENDS
    Global semiconductor sales are seen growing just under 5% in 2008, better than the 3.2% seen in 2007 but only half of the 9.1% expected just six months ago, according to new calculations from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics Inc. (WSTS).
- Tech News
  - SEMATECH Litho Forum: Steady progress on all fronts
    With almost all major R&D lithography efforts reporting at SEMATECH’s Litho Forum (May 12-14, 2008, Bolton Landing, Lake George, NY), the common theme resonating throughout a debrief with forum co-chair Mike Lercel (and SEMATECH’s lithography director) and program chair Bernie Roman is one of great progress made on many fronts with a growing interest in maskless/e-beam lithography.
  - Edge: the final cleaning frontier
    Primarily driven by immersion lithography, defects on the wafer edge can transfer to the circuit areas and kill yield, and may be removed using wet etches, dry plasma etches, lasers, and mechanical abrasion.
  - ALD comes to single-metal high-k gate stacks
    Though semiconductor researchers spent years trying to identify an alternative to SiO2 for the transistor gate dielectric, it turns out that search was the easy part.
  - Novellus tips strip clean tools for logic, memory
    Novellus Systems has released two new variations on its Gamma multi-station sequential processing (MSSP) architecture, targeting high volume memory and logic/foundry fabs.
  - New tool takes on flicker noise
    Cascade Microtech has unveiled a new test system designed to measure flicker noise in ICs, seen as a barrier to lowering device operating voltages as geometries shrink–and a strategic initiative to integrate measurements systems to provide users with measurement accuracy assurance.
- Chip Forensics
  - Image sensors adopt wafer-level packaging for mobile phone cameras
    This month, SST presents a preview of the July edition of Chip Forensics, an online column by Dick James, senior technology adviser at Chipworks, a specialty reverse-engineering company that takes apart ICs and electronics systems in order to provide engineering information for its customers.
- Products
  - Featured Products
    The Imprio HD 2200 is the latest addition to the company’s family of Step and Flash Imprint Lithography (S-FIL) tools for hard-disk-drive (HDD) applications.
  - Product news
    The Electro Plus Fusion Machine, with hand-held user interface, speeds the electrofusion joining process of thermoplastic pipe and fittings and can be used with several of the company’s piping systems.
- Industry Forum
  - Managing across-wafer process variation
    Step-and-scan and resolution enhancements in optical lithography have enabled printing much smaller usable features.
Features
- Cover Article
  - High-k goes to production, but arguments continue
    The manufacturing infrastructure for high-k stacks is reasonably mature. Manufacturers have access to the toolsets and precursors they need, even if they aren’t sure thus far what structure to build.
- Compound Semiconductors
  - Integrating III-V on silicon for future transistor applications
    Since the early 2000s, many new electronic materials have been explored and incorporated into silicon CMOS transistors for enhancing their device performance and energy-efficiency.
- Implant
  - 32nm node USJ formation using rapid process optimization metrology
    Ultra-shallow junctions (USJs) that are <10nm at the 32nm node require the close process optimization of ion implantation (elemental species, energy and dose) with diffusion-less annealing (millisecond and spike combination) in order to reduce device variation and achieve “high-quality” junctions.
- Nanotechnology
  - Applications-based assessment for the printable electronics market
    Printable electronics has been on an exponential growth curve for many years. Current prospects for printable electronics include sophisticated patterning to create memories and transistors; the variety of materials for printed electronics has also expanded.
- EHS/Contamination Control
  - PVA brush design advances for Cu/low-k post-CMP cleaning apps
    To meet next-generation challenges, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) brush designs may need further optimization in design and materials, and many of the cleaning chemistries and approaches will have to change.
- Thin Wafer Processing
  - Temporary bonding/debonding for ultrathin substrates
    A jointly developed temporary bonding/debonding system designed for ultrathin wafer processing is described, as well as critical parameters to be considered in processing thin wafers, including TSV creation.

EDITORS' PICKS

LIVE NEWS FEED

VITESSE SEMICONDUCTOR REPORTS ACQUISITION BY DIRECTOR TRAUB (California)

VITESSE SEMICONDUCTOR REPORTS ACQUISITION BY DIRECTOR FREY (California)

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NXP Semiconductors' principal stockholders commence secondary offering of 25 million shares

Geo Semiconductor raises $5.65 million in equity offering

SEMICONDUCTOR ARTICLES

MRAM: Disruptive technology for storage applications

Digi-Key Corporation and MEMSIC announce global distribution agreement

STMicroelectronics proximity sensor solves smartphone hang-ups

Nanoelectronics Conference will focus on semiconductor industry’s future

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PACKAGING ARTICLES

MRAM: Disruptive technology for storage applications

STMicroelectronics proximity sensor solves smartphone hang-ups

Broadcom tops three ABI Research wireless connectivity IC competitive assessments

Strategic approach to R&D is goal at National Photonics Initiative Event

MORE PACKAGING

MEMS ARTICLES

Digi-Key Corporation and MEMSIC announce global distribution agreement

STMicroelectronics proximity sensor solves smartphone hang-ups

Nanoelectronics Conference will focus on semiconductor industry’s future

Short-range wireless technology IC market to reach almost 5 billion units shipped in 2013

MORE MEMS

LEDS ARTICLES

Student develops brighter, smarter and more efficient LEDs

AIXTRON sees signs of market stabilization in report of 2012 fiscal year

EPIC to develop industry database and interactive map

Fab Spending Forecast: Equipment spending is expected to remain flat in 2013

MORE LEDS

DISPLAY ARTICLES

EPIC to develop industry database and interactive map

ITO film market undergoing a sea of changes

Corning believes flexible displays with Willow glass are still three years out

Worldwide LED component market grows 9%

MORE DISPLAYS

Topics

LEDS

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VIDEOS

TECHNOLOGY PAPERS

Automated Test Creation for Mixed Signal IP using IJTAG

The creation of test patterns for mixed signal IP has been, to a large extent, a manual effort. To improve the process used to test, access, and control embe...

Faster Time to Root Cause with Diagnosis-Driven Yield Analysis

This whitepaper describes the benefits of implementing a diagnosis-driven yield analysis flow using the Tessent® Diagnosis and Tessent YieldInsight® software...

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WEBCASTS

Innovation in Semiconductor Manufacturing Instrumentation

As the semiconductor industry moves toward smaller geometries, manufacturing processes are becoming more complex. In particular, they’re more deman...

3D and 2.5D Integration: A Status Report Live Event

This webcast will explore the present status of 2.5 and 3D integration, including TSV formation.

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Issue 7

Table of Contents

Solid State Technology

Departments

Editorial

World News

Tech News

Chip Forensics

Products

Industry Forum

Features

Cover Article

Compound Semiconductors

Implant

Nanotechnology

EHS/Contamination Control

Thin Wafer Processing

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EDITORS' PICKS

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LIVE NEWS FEED

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SEMICONDUCTOR ARTICLES

PACKAGING ARTICLES

MEMS ARTICLES

LEDS ARTICLES

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BUYERS GUIDE

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MEMS

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