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Europe’s 10/100/20 program

Despite some economic woes in recent years, Europe remains dedicated to building a strong electronics industry. This was brought home to me recently when, in advance of Semicon Europa (October 7-10 in Dresden), I had a chance to talk with Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe. “There are several initiatives like the KET (key enabling technology) initiative that are working on the same goals to increase the competitiveness but also…

Apple A7 uses Samsung’s 28nm process

Last week, we started tearing down the Apple iPhone 5S. There has been much speculation that Apple would be moving their processor chips over to TSMC, but I think that we can now decisively say that this has not occurred – they have migrated to 28nm, but still at Samsung. Earlier in the day last Friday we established from the look of the die that the A7 was manufactured by…

Apple A7 uses Samsung’s 28nm process

Last week, we started tearing down the Apple iPhone 5S. There has been much speculation that Apple would be moving their processor chips over to TSMC, but I think that we can now decisively say that this has not occurred – they have migrated to 28nm, but still at Samsung. Earlier in the day last Friday we established from the look of the die that the A7 was manufactured by…

Apple A7 uses Samsung’s 28nm process

Last week, we started tearing down the Apple iPhone 5S. There has been much speculation that Apple would be moving their processor chips over to TSMC, but I think that we can now decisively say that this has not occurred – they have migrated to 28nm, but still at Samsung. Earlier in the day last Friday we established from the look of the die that the A7 was manufactured by…

Join us for a free webcast on Advanced Packaging, Sept. 30th

Please join us for a free webcast on Advanced Packaging, to be held on September 30th, at 11:00am Eastern, 10:00am Central and 8:00am Pacific. You can register in advance at this link: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1021830 The webcast, which will feature presenters from Texas Instruments and Micron, will address how today’s packaging technology is driven by a combination of cost, performance, form factor and reliability. The presenters will examine new advances in conventional…

Defect-free mask blanks next EUV challenge

The next major roadblock to progress in the ongoing push to develop EUV lithography for volume production is the availability of defect-free mask blanks. According to Veeco’s Tim Pratt, Senior Director, Marketing, the tools in place today are not capable of producing mask blanks with the kind of yield necessary to support a ramp in EUV. “Based on the yield today, the mask blank manufacturing capacity can’t produce enough mask…

How to Contribute to SST

One of the most common questions I’m asked is “How can I contribute to Solid State Technology?” We try to make that an easy process – so the short answer is shoot me an e-mail (psinger@extensionmedia.com) or give me a call (978-470-1806) – but I prepared this short guide as an overview of our various publications and the different ways to contribute.   First, a little about us: Solid State…

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and Rockchip RK3188 – Battle of the Foundries!

The Snapdragon 800 (Qualcomm MSM8974) is Qualcomm’s leading-edge, low-power, mobile phone app’s processor with built-in 3G/4G LTE modem, using the latest Krait 400 CPU rated at 2.3 GHz and their 450 MHz Adreno 330 GPU. It was launched at this year’s CES International with this rather slick commercial. Significantly, it is fabricated using the TSMC 28HPM (28-nm, High-Performance Mobile) process, which extends TSMC’s high-k, metal gate (HKMG) processing into the mobile space.…

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and Rockchip RK3188 – Battle of the Foundries!

The Snapdragon 800 (Qualcomm MSM8974) is Qualcomm’s leading-edge, low-power, mobile phone app’s processor with built-in 3G/4G LTE modem, using the latest Krait 400 CPU rated at 2.3 GHz and their 450 MHz Adreno 330 GPU. It was launched at this year’s CES International with this rather slick commercial. Significantly, it is fabricated using the TSMC 28HPM (28-nm, High-Performance Mobile) process, which extends TSMC’s high-k, metal gate (HKMG) processing into the mobile space.…

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and Rockchip RK3188 – Battle of the Foundries!

The Snapdragon 800 (Qualcomm MSM8974) is Qualcomm’s leading-edge, low-power, mobile phone app’s processor with built-in 3G/4G LTE modem, using the latest Krait 400 CPU rated at 2.3 GHz and their 450 MHz Adreno 330 GPU. It was launched at this year’s CES International with this rather slick commercial. Significantly, it is fabricated using the TSMC 28HPM (28-nm, High-Performance Mobile) process, which extends TSMC’s high-k, metal gate (HKMG) processing into the mobile space.…

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