SemiSerious

IMFT 25nm NAND flash: Seeing Double (patterning)

Andrew Woodard — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:00:08 +0000

It seems that a 25nm half pitch NAND flash process would have to use double patterning to defeat the limits imposed by the Rayleigh criterion. In the self-aligned STI is proof that will have you seeing double.... patterning that is.

Micron/Nanya 42nm predictions revisited

Andrew Woodard — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:00:36 +0000

On February 8 I tantalized my audience (all two of you) with some guesses as to what UBM TechInsights would find inside the Micron/Nanya 42nm DDR3 SDRAM. With the Detailed Structural Analysis almost ready for publication, I thought I’d go back and check my guesses, while also tipping my lucky readers with a few interesting [...]

Micron/Nanya debut 42nm SDRAM

Andrew Woodard — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:57:02 +0000

Seems like it was just last week (actually, 7 days ago to the hour) that Micron was unveiling its newest, smallest NAND flash process to date. This week, they’re at it again: Jointly developed with Nanya, the 42nm 2Gb DDR3 SDRAM, with a 49.2mm2 footprint, packs 41.6 Mb into each square millimeter. Having just had [...]

NAND flash frontier reaches 25nm thanks to Intel, Micron

Andrew Woodard — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:00:52 +0000

IMFT, the flash memory joint venture between Intel and Micron, announce today that they are sampling 25nm 2-bit-per-cell NAND flash devices in densities up to 64Gb (167mm2). In doing so they become the current “kings of the mountain” with bragging rights on bits per mm2 (392Mb/mm2) and finest line pitch in a launched product. They [...]

“Novel” displays could help push e-books to the masses

Andrew Woodard — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:00:04 +0000

Walk into any music store at any mall, and what you’ll find is a relatively sparse crowd, mostly poring over racks of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs of their favorite movies and TV series. The CD section is relegated to a corner where one backward holdout actually has the nerve to buy and store on a [...]

Intel’s tweak to plug the leak

Andrew Woodard — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:00:34 +0000

Intel's second generation high-K gate dielectric further reduces gate-substrate tunnel current.

20 Years Ago Today

Don Scansen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:44:42 +0000

After watching a few commemorative videos on YouTube, I was a bit struck by the fact that Walter Cronkite died only two days before the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings that he reported on. As the NY Times said, Cronkite was the “proxy for a nation.” That was never more true than [...]

TSMC 40nm Yield Issues

Don Scansen — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:41:41 +0000

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Predicting the Recovery

Don Scansen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:14:52 +0000

Brief note from the editor: People often compliment me on my workload sharing techniques. For those who know me well, it will therefore come as no surprise that today’s article is written by a guest blogger. Mike Cowan is a 45-year semiconductor industry veteran who worked for 36 years at IBM’s Microelectronics Division in East Fishkill, N.Y. [...]

MISFETs at VLSLI 2009

Don Scansen — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:22:20 +0000

I mentioned elsewhere that Intel’s approach of removing the oxide interlayer prior to high-K dielectric deposition was a significant advance on the road to scaling HKMG processes for the 16nm node. This joint effort with Sematech and UT Dallas will be presented at VLSI Technology Symposium 2009. Intel’s oxide-less gate stack technique might be signaling [...]

GM Bankrupt

Don Scansen — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:35:05 +0000

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VLSI 2009 – the actual preview post

Don Scansen — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:39:31 +0000

Last week I attempted to preview the upcoming VLSI Symposia. The conferences are in Japan this year, and my attention was quickly diverted to the current situation in the Japanese semiconductor industry. With all that off my chest, I am free this week to actually look at some of the papers that will be presented [...]

VLSI Japan

Don Scansen — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:30:14 +0000

For each of the jewels in the technology triple crown of conferences – IEDM, ISSCC, and VLSI – I hope to preview (and occasionally post-analyze) the papers. But what started as a quick look at the 2009 edition of the VLSI Circuits and Technology Symposia quickly veered into a commentary on the Japanese electronics industry. This [...]

Nintendo DSi

Don Scansen — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:15:44 +0000

I have to say I like the Nintendo DS. The popular gaming platform is a clever mix of form, function and fashion not to mention my initials. I wonder if Nintendo was thinking of me...Getting back to reality for a second (at least my version), the DS is worthy of more than my monogram...certainly the 100M unit sales mark that it recently surpassed. Although it was released last year in Japan, Nintendo appeared to time its launch of an upgraded version of the DS in North America dubbed DSi to coincide with the 100M sales mark.

Weak Node

Don Scansen — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:40:04 +0000

As I mentioned last week, there’s a lot of discussion about half nodes and “weak” nodes for logic technology. There’s no disputing that the semiconductor business ebbs and flows in predictable cycles, so there are points in time where the business climate may just not support gearing up for high volume production. If a downturn [...]

TSMC 40nm Technology

Don Scansen — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:44:12 +0000

TSMC recently launched their 40nm process technology. The first devices to roll out of Hsinchu were Altera’s Stratix IV FPGA’s. Semiconductor Insights process analysis team was the first to dig into TSMC’s newest offering. TSMC’s 40nm process is a big milestone. They are the first foundry besides IBM to use embedded SiGe source/drains. The eSiGe provides [...]

2009 Insight Award Winners

Don Scansen — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:18:36 +0000

In the TechInsights tradition, every attempt is made to inspire those designers, engineers and builders who actually do the work of creating technology. To highlight this, a special awards ceremony was held recently in San Francisco. As many of you know, Semiconductor Insights has offered leading technology companies a chance to showcase their best efforts [...]

For the Love of Acronyms, Batman

Don Scansen — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:01:32 +0000

Informally (which is certainly not to suggest that anything that goes on SemiSerious is formal) I keep a list of acronyms which are used for different things in different fields. With my memory being what it is, very few of these make it out of the dark recesses of my mind and into the light [...]

TSMC’s Intel ARM

Don Scansen — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:09:58 +0000

Here are some ramblings to follow up my February 10 post regarding Intel going after some of the ARM processor core market. The Intel-TSMC announcement this week has set the media a-buzz with what the new collaboration could mean. Perhaps the case for Intel (or anyone with a viable processor design for that matter) going after [...]

Insight Awards Selections

Don Scansen — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:48:49 +0000

This week marks the beginning of the long and sometimes arduous process of selecting winners in the SI Insight Awards in each of the technology categories. Of course, these are: Process Technology Non-volatile Memory DRAM Mobile Processor Of course, it’s always a treat to talk to the creators of technology about their products. Sometimes, it’s more like listening to proud [...]

ISSCC 2009

Don Scansen — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:25:13 +0000

Looking forward in the current economic climate is so depressing, it’s worth a look back at an event from a couple of weeks ago – ISSCC. I had the opportunity to stay in snowy Ottawa while getting updated on the events of the week remotely by three of the SI engineering team. Aaron Murray pointed out [...]

Intel at ISSCC 2009

Don Scansen — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:28:47 +0000

Considering this won’t go up until the third day of the conference, it just wouldn’t be right to call this “a preview.” However, last week, I had a chance to get just that from Mark Bohr as he provided an overview of Intel’s contribution to this year’s ISSCC program. Intel is very well-represented at the [...]

New Look

Don Scansen — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:18:40 +0000

Will a new look and upgrade to the latest version of WordPress bring more frequent and higher quality posts to SemiSerious? Let’s hope. But for now, it’s easier on the eyes thanks to help from SI web gurus Jimmy Lee and Adam Freeborn. Now if I could get them to write a post or two…

IEDM 2008 Preview

Don Scansen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:58:56 +0000

Leaving things until the last minute is certainly nothing new for me, but I might be better off waiting to summarize next week’s IEDM than trying to preview it here. These days, there is a constant flow of negative news in the chip industry and the wider economy, so thinking about the research and development [...]

Oil and Sun

Don Scansen — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:50:02 +0000

I’m not suggesting any cause and effect, but three weeks after trading in my gas guzzling minivan for an economy car rated at 6.2 litres per 100km, gas prices here in Ottawa are set to dip below $0.80 per litre. (Actually, it’s taken a week to get around to finishing this post, and I actually [...]

Flash Forward to Toshiba’s High-K

Don Scansen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:23:54 +0000

Toshiba is the first flash manufacturer to incorporate a high-K dielectric in their product. Their innovative inter-poly dielectric has allowed Toshiba to scale their floating gate flash memory to 43nm. The 16Gbit multi-level cell (MLC) device from Toshiba sets the new high watermark for NAND flash bit density at 139Mbits/mm². Samsung claimed the first implementation of high-K [...]

Insight Awards 2008

Don Scansen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:41:39 +0000

Our marketing teamrecently launched the latest instance of the popular Insight Awards Program. We are rabidly seeking your submissions to the contest. This year, it is a coordinated event between EE Times, Portelligent, and Semiconductor Insights. If you haven’t heard about this program before, it is a chance to use us to showcase your technology. But [...]

Alternative Spin

Don Scansen — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:30:35 +0000

The reason that utilities prefer solar thermal today is simple. Power engineers have a deep appreciation for rotating mass. Think about it. Every major power plant in the world uses its preferred source of energy to spin a turbine that’s attached to an electric generator. Hydro has it’s channeled waterfall. More commonly, heat generated by [...]

Enough Already

Don Scansen — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:30:23 +0000

For years the question, “How much is enough?” has been debated regarding NAND flash endurance. How many write cycles do you really need over the lifetime of a camera card or memory stick? How long do you need your portable data to stay intact? SI’s senior memory analyst, Young Choi, attended the recent Flash Memory Summit [...]

Is This Good News?

Don Scansen — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:28:15 +0000

David Manners recently reported in Electronics Weekly that the semiconductor materials market will grow at double the rate of the chip industry. The actual numbers quoted from the SIA and SEMI respectively shake out as 4% for semiconductors and 9% for materials. It all sounds like solid growth – right? Or does it? I fear that some [...]

Getting Back to It

Don Scansen — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:12:12 +0000

After my longest absence since starting SemiSerious, I thought it was about time to get posting again. For the handful of people actually reading this blog, I feel terrible about not keeping it going through the early summer. I hope to ramp up again in August with weekly posts appearing regularly by the time September [...]

Sony Prefers Backsides

Don Scansen — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:22:20 +0000

OmniVision made the first announcement of a backside illuminated CMOS image sensor intended for the mass market two weeks ago. It seems their lead (at least in the PR world) did not last long as Sony made a similar claim this week. Gizmodo has front-side versus backside captured images along with a neat animated graphic comparing the [...]

Backside Follow-up

Don Scansen — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:07:50 +0000

Last week, I posted a long, wordy (your own description might not be so flattering) article about OmniVision’s OmniBSI announcement. To sum up, OmniVision appears to be first out of the gate with a backside illuminated CMOS image sensor for the mass market. Despite the length of last week’s post, I left out an important [...]

OmniBSI

Don Scansen — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:00:18 +0000

This week presented interesting news as two image sensor technologies I thought might one day displace traditional types appear to have made breakthroughs on the march to commercialization. NHK showcased an active layer over IC – or AIC -type of sensor while OmniVision announced they would be sampling a backside illuminated - BSI - detector next month. Junko Yoshida’s detailed article on EETimes put [...]

Manufacturing at AMD

Don Scansen — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:29:49 +0000

There are more rumors this week about AMD’s manufacturing strategy. Tony Smith of The Register cited a DigiTimes report that AMD will be adding TSMC as a production partner. Fusion processors are scheduled for late 2009. If you think about it, you could say that AMD already has a long-standing relationship with TSMC. After all, [...]

AMD Strategy

Don Scansen — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:00:24 +0000

From all the rumor and conjecture we hear, AMD’s manufacturing strategy could well be running out of steam. Could this be another case of milking the local government and low-priced labor in a geography and then pulling up stakes once the subsidies run out or local salaries get too high? There are reports of labor [...]

Phony Image Sensors

Don Scansen — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:56:13 +0000

A couple of my colleagues were surprised to say the least this week when the devices they were working on turned out to be rather elaborate fakes. Or not – I’m not exactly sure. SI was undertaking a reverse engineering project looking at a certain leading CMOS image sensor supplier’s device who is known to use [...]

Telepresence

Don Scansen — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:33:38 +0000

Maybe I missed the point of Web 2.0, or maybe I just don’t have enough bandwidth available at my desktop to make it viable. Either way, it looks like videoconferencing is a technology worth watching. Our friends at iSuppli recently announced that video conferencing was set to emerge as a major application. Their forecast suggests sales [...]

Map Happy

Don Scansen — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:56:54 +0000

At the Intertech-Pira Image Sensor Conference a few weeks ago, I suggested that Google Street View might create a post-cameraphone demand boom for imagers. My reasoning (if it’s fair to call it that) was that the folks at Google have given us a useful virtual tourism concept simply by driving camera trucks around about 40 major US [...]

Heroes and Icons: Gibson versus Guitar Hero

Don Scansen — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:29:46 +0000

On March 20, the famous Gibson Guitar Corporation sued Harmonix, MTV, and EA for infringement of US Patent 5,990,405 – System and Method for generating and controlling a Simulated Musical Concert Experience. The defendants named are meant to cover the entire Guitar Hero series as well as the newer Rock Band game. Gibson has since [...]

Speculating

Don Scansen — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:50:08 +0000

Yesterday, the first departure from the post-Micron imaging company Aptina was announced. Dr. Ilia Ovsiannikov has moved to MagnaChip Semiconductor. As Image Sensor reported in detail, Ovsiannikov leaves the senior post at Micron of R&D manager and architect in Imaging to head up North American R&D for MagnaChip at their new design center in Pasadena. Image [...]

Lon-Dan Calling

Don Scansen — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:01:37 +0000

I am in London this week and just wrapped things up at the Intertech-Pira Image Sensor Conference. It was an interesting event with a diverse programme. There was everything from cameraphones to disposable endoscopes to swarms of robotic surveillance insects. Wait. The bugs were just my own nutty comment lifted from IEEE Spectrum. After a [...]

Aptina for sale?

Don Scansen — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:40:54 +0000

I would hardly be the first to speculate that creating a separate image sensor division with its own brand is part of a larger plan by Micron management to dump the unit now known as Aptina. According to a quote from Bob Gove in EETimes, Aptina is targeting Japan and their 9 megapixel sensor is already [...]

The Power of Fashion

Don Scansen — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:10:42 +0000

The expression “turn off your clothes” might soon be applied more literally than it once was for the geeky guy wearing the bright yellow Hawaiian shirt. MIT Technology Review recently reported on a technology that might some day extract power from the clothes we wear. It’s all part of a new movement to harvest energy from [...]

Mobile World Congress

Don Scansen — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:26:54 +0000

The Mobile World Congress has wrapped up, and there were plenty of interesting things to see and new announcements made. But unfortunately I was stuck at SI’s booth fighting off the hordes of people clamoring to learn more about our semiconductor analyses I did, however, make it out of the booth long enough [...]

Embedded RAM

Don Scansen — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:46:49 +0000

For years, there has been speculation that traditional SRAM would be replaced with a denser type of memory for SoC devices. In fact, TI once announced that they would use ferroelectric RAM or FeRAM beginning at 90nm for their devices. Fear of ever-worsening process variability has been widespread. Alas, we have entered the 45nm period, [...]

45nm: What Intel Didn’t Tell You

Don Scansen — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:28:11 +0000

This article originally appeared in EETimes Under the Hood. Unfortunately, there was an editing hiccup, so I have decided to post the complete text of the original article here. -Ed Two months after Semiconductor Insights provided the first public view of Intel’s 45nm technology and nearly a month after Intel’s IEDM presentation, it seems appropriate to revisit [...]

ITRS Pre-release

Don Scansen — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:17:23 +0000

Today Laura Peters from Semiconductor International (the other SI) hosted a webcast providing an overview of the contents of the upcoming 2007 Edition of the Semiconductor Industry Association’s (SIA) roadmap for technology – the ITRS. If there is anyone who really knows what’s in that upcoming document, it is Intel’s Alan Allan, and he gave [...]

45nm Mistry

Don Scansen — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:46:40 +0000

Okay, so this post is a day after the news, but that’s still better than posting beforehand to create the appearance of a scoop. Yesterday, Intel’s much anticipated presentation of their 45nm process was held at IEDM in Washington. Although I suggested last week that Intel would reveal certain details of their process, much of it still remains [...]

Intel DFV

Don Scansen — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:46:52 +0000

At the Common Platform Technology Forum last month, the design for manufacturing (DFM) session message was, “not if but when the industry will have to move to structured gate layouts.” Intel already has. The industry is at a point where design for variability (DFV) is required. The old approach would be to add margin, but design [...]

Spray-on IC

Don Scansen — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:42:44 +0000

MIT Technology Review ran a very interesting story about printable electronics this week. Kovio, a company spun out of MIT’s Media Lab, announced a new process for printing transistors with inkjet printing techniques. According to this report, Kovio may begin production with disposable smart cards for public transit. Performance of Kovio devices will be better [...]

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Don Scansen — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:00:16 +0000

Last week, I mentioned that Matsushita might not be getting the respect they deserved with a 45nm process obliterated by Intel’s shadow. I also should acknowledge that I was one of the doubters and expected Intel to not only get to 45nm first but with a considerable lead on second place. Well it turns out that the speculation by [...]

Penryn Premiere

Don Scansen — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:54:44 +0000

Yesterday marked the dawn of a new era of scaling for CMOS devices. I hope that statement fits with all the hype around the launch of the 45nm microprocessor from Intel. In fairness, though, switching to metal gates and high-k dielectrics represents an important milestone in semiconductor technology. Gordon Moore’s well-worn comments are appropriate: “The implementation [...]

Design, Build, Fail and Test

Don Scansen — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 22:03:16 +0000

While attending the IBM and associates Common Technology Platform Forum this afternoon, it occured to me that I was bridging the gap between the design community and trying to get it right, and the failure analysis community that steps in too often to mention in polite company. That’s because I am also in San Jose [...]

The IFM

Don Scansen — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:00:36 +0000

The new buzz word – acronym actually – coming out of today’s IBM-Chartered-Samsung Common Platform Forum today here in Santa Clara is the term introduced by Qualcomm Senior VP and GM, Behrooz Abdi. His view of the consortium is to create an “integrated fabless manufacturer” or IFM akin to the IDM he means to displace. (Qualcomm [...]

Ode to M.E.

Don Scansen — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:29:26 +0000

It is a perplexing thing that semiconductor technology requires so mucn investment and innovation, but it is a simple mechanical design that makes one product more useful or attractive to the consumer than another. Think about the swivel disk USB drives, or stiletto type where the connector is pushed out of a sleeve. Convenience is [...]

45nm: Who will be first?

Don Scansen — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:11:06 +0000

Well, I certainly believed it would be Intel before Engagdget started trying to change my mind. That site claimed that Panasonic Blu-ray DVD recorders seen at CEATEC contained the UniPhier (Universal Platform for High-quality Image Enhancing Revolution) chip allegedly built with Matsushita’s 45nm technology. The DVD units are scheduled to roll November 1. Engagdget previously reported [...]

Thin is in

Don Scansen — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:06:58 +0000

Although it has not yet generated as much buzz as the iPhone, the iPod Touch could be the best product designed in Cupertino. The most striking feature of the iPhone was, after all, its touch screen and navigation. More than a few people touted the iPhone as the best iPod ever, and some claimed they [...]

Your Comments are Welcome

Don Scansen — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:16:06 +0000

If you have attempted to post comments to articles on this site and are wondering what happened to them, please accept my apologies. Technical difficulties have left many recent comments in limbo. I promise that your patience will be rewarded next week when you will, at last, see these on SemiSerious. I think many of [...]

Oddjobs

Don Scansen — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:18:54 +0000

Steve Jobs may have a golden touch, but who would have ever connected Apple’s iPhone to the sixties Bond classic, Goldfinger? Well, some folks at Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) did. Some CSR chip designers were either great James Bond fans or not quite fans of one particular project. (I trust they weren’t talking about Steve.) [...]

iPhone SiP, PoP, SoC

Don Scansen — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:48:08 +0000

Confusion abounds about the manufacturer and type of microprocessor found in Apple’s iPhone. With over a million units shipped to date and Apple on the verge of launching their revolutionary computing platform into Europe, the timing is right to reveal the “secret.” Actually, I am just revisiting Semiconductor Insights’ revelation from July as reported in [...]

Just Do It

Don Scansen — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:01:42 +0000

Slogans, marketing, and heavy-handed branding dominate our consumer society. Whether we are letting our fingers do the walking, in good hands with All-State, or the best a man can get, it’s hard to escape the advertisers who maximize every opportunity to shape our thinking. The tech world is no different of course. We have “Intel [...]

AMD Four-Banger

Don Scansen — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:23:59 +0000

AMD added the Quad Core Barcelona to its server lineup of microprocessors this week. Many, including AMD’s own Hector Ruiz, have said this launch is at least six months late. But AMD is clearly the first to achieve a “native” quad core MPU with four processing cores monolithically integrated onto one piece of silicon. Intel’s [...]

More Buzz

Don Scansen — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:51:09 +0000

A couple weeks ago I scratched rather shallowly into the topic of turning motion energy into useful electricity (check it out). I was impressed with the development of a technology that could convert power line frequency mechanical vibrations into about 40mW from a device fitting inside a one centimetre cube. This, I argued, would start [...]

Apple’s White House Hotline

Don Scansen — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:41:24 +0000

I will not be the one to draw any connections, but the White House decision to support the ITC ruling to embargo smart phones containing Qualcomm chipsets could lead to a dumbing down of the U.S. (at least in consumer technology). Enter the blue jean and black turtleneck bedecked superhero with the iPhone. Steve would [...]

Green Baseball

Don Scansen — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:18:20 +0000

Any discussion of Major League Baseball that includes the word “green” usually means one thing – money. In the SF Giants case, though, it means using solar energy. A solar farm incorporating 590 Sharp Corp. panels was installed before San Francisco’s AT&T park hosted the All-Star game. The installation was reported to cost about $1.5 million to [...]

Sold!

Don Scansen — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:29:56 +0000

The most respected entity in reverse engineering was sold yesterday to CMP Technology, our long-time media partner. With Semiconductor Insights now part of the CMP family, I may have to drop “Semi” from the title. Things are about to get “serious” around here but in a good way. We are starting down the road to [...]

Nanotechnology from Gigatools

Don Scansen — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:25:42 +0000

Since I’m not at Semicon West this week to talk to any of the industry movers and shakers, I will take certain liberties to comment on a recent EDN interview with Applied Materials CEO, Mike Splinter. Ed Sperling looked to extract some information about AMAT’s success in the tool business. Splinter pointed to recognizing and concentrating on [...]

Shake It Up, Baby

Don Scansen — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:24:31 +0000

A recent article in Technology Review caught my eye today. A group of engineers at the University of Southampton in England have built a prototype accelerometer powered by ambient vibrations. I’m happy to see the vibrations that I could never escape and drove me up the wall during my grad student days doing noise measurements [...]

iPhone Sends Out S-O-S to the World

Don Scansen — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:29:33 +0000

If you just crawled out from under a rock or you were too busy filling orders for Saskatchewan sealskin bindings, you may not have heard about Apple’s iPhone launch last Friday. Fortunately, we did, and our crack marketing team stood in a Boston Apple Store line for 12 hours, raced back to HQ here in Ottawa, and [...]

We’ve Got the Power

Don Scansen — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:30:59 +0000

Trying to mute the old joke that compound semiconductors are the technology of the future and always will be, Dr. Vu Ho recently attended the 2007 International Conference on Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology. The III-V compounds and related materials such as GaAs, GaN and InP have for years been a mainstay of advanced platforms in [...]

2007 IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference

Don Scansen — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:27:26 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, my good friend and semiconductor analysis colleague, Mark Chambers, attended the IITC in San Francisco. The sessions were held from June 4 to 6 at the Hyatt Regency at San Francisco Airport. Because the dates spanned my wedding anniversary and wife’s birthday and the conference site was far from downtown, [...]

Image Sensors and Lobster – News from IISW

Don Scansen — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:29:32 +0000

Easier than choosing a wine for shellfish was my decision to attend the 2007 International Image Sensor Workshop held last week in beautiful (literally – see the translation) Ogunquit, Maine. The huge lobster was served up with an even bigger dose of the latest research in imaging technology. The workshop – formerly known as CCD [...]

iPatent

Don Scansen — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:41:22 +0000

EETimes announced yesterday an Apple patent application describing a touch screen control system. Fans of Apple products (myself included) are excited by the prospect of a whole new breed of devices that could incorporate a touch screen interface. The iPhone is the only product Apple has announced and shown to have this type of interface. [...]

VLSI – DRAM Technology

Don Scansen — Wed, 09 May 2007 20:14:49 +0000

With the VLSI Syymposia just a little over a month away, I will wrap up my picks for papers to watch for by looking at DRAM. For the Technology Symposium, Samsung is over-represented with five out of the seven presentations split between two sessions. Two of Samsung’s articles will discuss aspects of their FinFET DRAM cell, [...]

See what’s inside the Xbox 360 Elite

admin — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:07:53 +0000

VLSI 2007 – Phase Change Memory Technology

Don Scansen — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:49:25 +0000

This is my second review of papers to be presented at the VLSI Technology Symposium. Today, I will take a look at the most promising papers on phase change memory technology (PCM or PRAM). Today at its spring development forum in Beijing, Intel announced that it will produce a 128M 90nm PRAM later this year. This is bound to create some extra buzz [...]

TSMC 45nm ready in September – what’s changed?

Don Scansen — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:35:20 +0000

TSMC recently announced it would put its 45nm technology into production this coming September. For me, this begs the question, “What’s changed?” After all, TSMC was relatively late to the 65nm party. Consider the following: 65nm was generally a shrink of 90nm 45nm will be “new” TSMC followed most of the major IDMs and rival UMC into 65nm production The [...]

VLSI 2007

Don Scansen — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:20:59 +0000

Once again last week, the organizers of the VLSI Technology and Circuit Symposia organizers supplied me with this year’s abstracts and conference summary. As always, there are a lot of great papers with all geographic regions well-represented. For today’s blog, I will start a series of posts about which papers and technologies to watch for [...]

Micron: New Superpower?

Don Scansen — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:57:10 +0000

After relatively quietly becoming the dominant force in image sensors in the short span of three years, Micron is beginning to show more signs of becoming an Intel-like force in the industry. The most obvious example of this was the Patent Power article in the November 2006 IEEE Spectrum. 1790 Analytics conducted the first ever patent survey [...]

Fusion Memory

Don Scansen — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:12:59 +0000

In one of three plenary talks given at the 2006 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), Dr. Chang-Gyu Hwang, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics’ Semiconductor Business, suggested that we are about to experience the largest semiconductor industry transition ever. Chip Shots and Physorg have more detailed accounts of this talk. An entertaining Dr. Hwang predicted, “The approaching [...]

The Priory of 65nm SiON

Don Scansen — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 21:57:19 +0000

Perhaps the DaVinci Code and the legend of the Priory of Sion is no longer topical, but Sion’s namesake compound – SiON or silicon oxynitride – is extremely relevant in the semiconductor industry. Unlike Sion though, SiON at 65nm is no hoax – pushing exotic high-K materials out to 45nm for high performance logic processes [...]

2D or 3D? That is the question.

Don Scansen — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 20:00:18 +0000

45 years ago, planarization of the integrated circuit was a revolution that spawned Moore’s Law. Robert Noyce’s work took the idea of the IC in a direction that arguably shaped our information age. For the last several years, we braced for the end of Moore’s Law because planar technology would not continue to scale fast enough. [...]

More to RCAT than Samsung

Don Scansen — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:32:43 +0000

In the constant quest to increase the density of memory bits in each square millimeter of silicon, DRAM makers have looked up and down. First, there were storage capacitors stacked above the active devices. Then IBM developed trench technology (now widely exploited by Qimonda) to bury the capacitor deep into the substrate. More recently, Samsung introduced [...]

Brief Notes From IEDM 2006

Don Scansen — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 22:25:25 +0000

The theme of this trip for me was, “I get by with a little help from my friends.” Upon arriving in San Francisco, I found myself in a taxi bound for the conference hotel without my wallet and barely enough cash for the fare. Fortunately, two of my SI process analysis colleagues were already there, [...]

Intel 65nm NOR StrataFlash

Don Scansen — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:35:30 +0000

Macronix recently announced that phase change memory (PCM) developed jointly with IBM and Qimonda had proven its viability below 20nm. The same DigiTimes article pointed out that this PCM technology proved it could overcome the ?physical barriers? currently inhibiting production of 65nm NOR flash. These comments are puzzling considering SI has already completed a comprehensive analysis [...]

TI is FAB-ulous

Don Scansen — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:19:31 +0000

Reliable Plant magazine picked up an announcement that Texas Instruments had won the Semiconductor International Top Fab of the Year award. TI is the first manufacturer to make use of 65nm process technology for a low cost logic device. Considering the challenges industry-wide at 65nm, that other 65nm ships on the market are for very [...]

TI Chip is 65nm Star

Don Scansen — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 17:11:05 +0000

To answer the question posed by Ed Keyes in EETimes, 65nm: Where are the chips?? we can now say, “TI”. Intel was first to 65nm nearly one year ago with their MPU. Then there was UMC getting a Xilinx FPGA into production and AMD with their Opteron G processor. Now comes TI with the first 65nm [...]

The PS3’s long and winding road

Don Scansen — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 18:35:50 +0000

The Sony Playstation 3 finally arrived on store shelves in select corners of the globe this week. Sony’s complex third generation gaming console has experienced multiple delays - shipping at least a year later than hoped by Sony execs and gaming fans everywhere. After much anticipation, we finally received the Sony Playstation 3 and got to [...]

Intel’s recipe for FUSI

Don Scansen — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 19:31:12 +0000

Intel was not only the first manufacturer to produce a 65nm advanced logic process, they are also onto their third revision of the generation. Among the tweaks in the Xeon is an increase in germanium concentration. The most striking, though, is that Xeon appears to be the first ever device to use FUSI - or FUlly [...]

Size only matters if you measure it

Don Scansen — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:55:06 +0000

Words cannot adequately describe my excitement when I first dug into the latest edition of the ITRS and discovered that the idea of process or technology node had been eliminated. It seemed like a dream, but it was driven home when I listened to Alan Allan?s presentation at a Sematech-Semico joint event last January. The new [...]

Leaders of the world unite!

Don Scansen — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 20:34:12 +0000

Two semiconductor manufacturers – Intel and Micron – teamed up to create IM Flash Technologies (IMFT). This partnership is the first to reach the 50nm half-pitch generation. This marks the first time in recent times Samsung has been surpassed in memory process technology. About 12 months ago, flash solidified its position as the new lithography driver [...]

Organic Produce and DFM

Don Scansen — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:06:37 +0000

Above: Dummy features?identified on TI OMAP 2420 Applications Processor (Source: Semiconductor Insights) More Information Download a complimentary Insight Report about Texas Instruments OMAP2420 Applications Processor (requires registration) Aren’t fruits and vegetables by definition organic? DFM - or design for manufacturability - is a common buzzword these days. Am I alone on this one too, or were we not always designing [...]

Yet another bus war, coming to a handset near you

Don Scansen — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 19:27:30 +0000

Free Report Download an Insight Report about this device from our website. It seems like a long time ago in a job far far away, but I do remember the infamous memory bus wars between Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) and the Synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM) interface. At the time, both were going to save the day by alleviating the [...]

Not just for hobbyists any more

Don Scansen — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 20:31:00 +0000

Die Photos showing Advanced Process Lithographies (click to enlarge) Analyzing devices has become increasingly difficult over the past years with the advancement of technology. Previously, anyone with some tools and know-how could take a semiconductor device, rip it apart, and find out some technical details about it. Two decades ago, feature sizes were measured in microns [...]

Spot the Lion

Don Scansen — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 18:32:03 +0000

For years now, we have been subjected to prediction and speculation about the emergence of mainland China as an economic superpower. Several semi foundries were built there with leading edge 300mm wafer capabilities, and it seemed very much like the Chinese would pull much of the world’s IC production out of other sites in Asia. China [...]

SLC v. MLC Flash Memory: Comparing Apples and Oranges

Don Scansen — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:12:41 +0000

Our preliminary analysis of the IM Flash Technologies’ 50nm 4Gb SLC NAND Flash unequivocally proves that it is, indeed, a 50nm device. This moves IMFT to the head of the class in terms of the smallest process lithography. Traditionally, it has been Samsung that has always pushed the process envelope, realizing 4Gb 65nm SLC NAND [...]

Geopolitical climate drives packaging innovations

Don Scansen — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:18:28 +0000

Recently, copper appeared in the news as a replacement for traditional gold bonding wires due to the rising price of gold. War and upheaval has a way of attracting investors to gold. Looking at the 30-year history of gold prices, there are spikes in 1979 when the Soviet Red Army invaded Afghanistan as well as [...]

Freescale MRAM – an in-depth examination

Don Scansen — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 14:45:24 +0000

Once promised as the replacement to conventional non-volatile memory, the prospects around MRAM are no longer as clear. Only two vendors have succeeded in bringing MRAM parts to the mass market – Cypress and Freescale. That said, Cypress discontinued their offering shortly after release and Freescale, which announced MRAM back when they were still known [...]

Copper prices soar

Don Scansen — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 15:48:23 +0000

So much for copper being a low cost replacement for gold wires. Labor strife in Chile has reduced the supply of copper driving up raw material costs. There seems to be no end to high commodity prices faced by the microelectronics industry. If only there was a way to get Wal-Mart on our side to [...]

SanDisk tinkers with Matrix 3D Memory

Don Scansen — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:12:47 +0000

Several weeks ago, I discussed an Ottawa firm’s entry into the one-time programmable (OTP) memory space. My focus in that discussion was the Matrix 3D memory which was also OTP and a rather ingenious way of packing very high numbers of bits onto chips made with older process technology – very old in comparison with [...]