The good people at TECHINSIGHTS have reverse-engineered an Intel “Optane” SSD to cross-section the XPoint cells within (http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331865&), so we have confirmation that the devices use chalcogenide glasses for both the switching layer and the selector diode. That the latter is labeled “OTS” (for Ovonic Threshold Switch) explains the confusion over the last year as to whether this device is a Phase-Change Memory (PCM) or Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM)…it…
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MEMS & Sensors Technical Congress 2017: Knowing Your Unknowns
By Karen Lightman, MEMS & Sensors Industry Group | SEMI As in life, knowing everything in MEMS and sensors is impossible. Often the best we can do is to “know the unknowns” because articulating what we do not yet understand allows us to seek answers so that we can stay competitive. MEMS and sensors supply chain members need to know what is “state of the art” in terms of technology,…
MEMS Mirrors for LIDAR
Clever integration of new microelectronic/nanoelectronic technologies will continue to provide increased functionalities for modern products. Light Imaging, Detection, And Ranging (LIDAR) technology uses lasers to see though fog and darkness, and smaller less expensive LIDAR systems are needed for autonomous driving applications now being developed by dozens of major companies around the world. A significant step in the right direction has been taken by the US government’s Lawrence Livermore National…
The ConFab Preview
The agenda is set for The ConFab, to be held May 14-17, 2017 in San Diego at the iconic Hotel del Coronado. While reviewing the abstracts for just the Monday morning session, it struck me how well our speakers will cover the complex opportunities and challenges facing the semiconductor industry. In the opening keynote, for example, Hans Stork, Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer, ON Semiconductor we will discuss…
Moore’s Law Smells Funny
…maybe we need “Integrated Cleverness Law” “Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa 1973 from Be-Bop Tango (Of The Old Jazzmen’s Church) Marketing is about managing expectations. IC marketing must position next-generation chips as adding significant new/improved functionalities, and for over 50 years the IC fab industry has leaned on the conceptual crutch of “so-called Moore’s Law” (as Gordon Moore always refers to it) to do…
Flagello to receive Zernike Award at SPIE Advanced Lithography
Donis Flagello, president, CEO, and COO of Nikon Research Corporation of America (NRCA), will be presented with the 2017 Frits Zernike Award for Microlithography on Monday 27 February during SPIE Advanced Lithography in San Jose, California. The award, presented annually for outstanding accomplishments in microlithography technology, recognizes Flagello’s leading role in understanding and improving image formation in optical lithography for semiconductor manufacturing. A prominent member of the industry since the…
Photoelectric measure of atomically thin stacks
A team led by researchers at the University of Warwick have discovered a breakthrough in how to measure the electronic structures of stacked 2D semiconductors using the photoelectric (PE) effect. Materials scientists around the world have been investigating various heterostructures to create different 2D materials, and stacking different combinations of 2D materials creates new materials with new properties. The new PE method measures the electronic properties of each layer in…
The New Driver for Semiconductor Tech
Over the past 40 years, the electronics industry has gone through three distinct stage or “waves” of evolution. Last year, in a Solid State Technology webcast presentation, Intel’s Islam Salama described the waves and how the latest wave is driving the semiconductor industry in new and very different ways. Dr. Salama is responsible for packaging substrate pathfinding of high density interconnects across all Intel products. His team focuses on packaging…
XMC becomes YRST or Changjiang Storage
As reported by Digitimes, a major enterprise in Wuhan, China has broken ground on the first of three mega-fabs to produce 3D-NAND chips. The final fab name-plate may ultimately read XMC or YMTC or YRST or possibly Changjiang Storage (not to be confused with GuangDong ChangJiang Storage Battery), but it is over half owned by the Chinese government’s Tsinghua Unigroup. Total investment in XMC/YRST by Tsinghua Unigroup is reported by…
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