Issue

There’s lots of discussion these days about how technological complexity and global market forces have combined to apply continuous and heavy pressure on the profit margins of semiconductor manufacturers.

Limits on thermal exposure are being driven by advanced node requirements and depend on the device’s physical state at any given point, as well as the kinetics of the undesired phenomena that may arise from heat treatment

In all epitaxial growth processes of III-Vs and related materials (MOCVD, MBE, CVD), an accurate control of the true wafer temperature is essential, primarily because the composition of key materials depends on it to a very large extent.

Solid State Technology asked design automation managers how DFM software is shifting the responsibilities for wafer yields.

Immersion lithography has the potential to extend current 193nm argon-fluoride technology to the 45nm process node by effectively reducing the wavelength of exposure light for improved depth-of-focus and enabling lens designs with numerical apertures >1.0.

The need for ultrathin high-k dielectric DRAM capacitors used in memory applications below 100nm, and for ultrathin high-k gate-dielectric materials in transistors at the 65nm node and below, presents challenges for improving ALD productivity.

Hydrogen is used extensively in wafer fabrication processes for epitaxial deposition in silicon and compound semiconductors.

Selective etching of silicon oxides relative to silicon or photoresist is achieved when the concentrations of CF⁺ and CF₂⁺ ions in the plasma are optimized relative to CF₃⁺.

It was not long ago that China’s leading-edge integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing capability lagged behind the rest of the world by two or more generations.

October marked the official launch of MagnaChip Semiconductor Ltd., South Korea’s $1 billion semiconductor spinoff company and a milestone for the Korean chip industry.