Semiconductor Fabrication News

Offering high throughput and lower cost of consumables is a new metal hard-mask technology for patterning copper interconnects. The new approach increases chip speed and yield, and reduces dielectric damage as well as the required thickness of the barrier film. Already accepted for 65 nm manufacturing, the company states it will work with 32 nm geometries.

A leading industry expert proposes a radical shift in the way that we manufacture wafers — eliminate the mask. Burn Lin, director of the micropatterning division at TSMC, contends that the biggest impediment to advancing wafer technology has always been the mask. He is seeking to create a maskless process by 2009.

How do you estimate the throughput you can expect from a device test process? According to this article, the method for handling the devices can dramatically affect throughput. Handler designs grab and hold devices very differently. Carefully examine claims made by different handler manufacturers before deciding the approach that works best.

Testing telecommunication devices that combine digital and analog components requires equipment that provides both digital and analog capability. According to this Evaluation Engineering report, new test techniques must supplement traditional RF-testing approaches. 3G cellular devices require extra steps, such as adjacent channel power ratio and output spectral mask tests.

Digital technology has dramatically reduced size and power consumption. But the accompanying analog circuitry — which more closely captures the real world — has not kept pace. It occupies more than its share of space and consumes considerable power compared with digital. A group of MIT engineers claim to have solved that problem.

The increased use of quad flat-pack no-lead devices requires careful attention to board level layout to achieve the best performance and quality. Although offering superior thermal and electrical characteristics compared with conventional QFPs, QFN implementation represents something of a challenge. This application note provides comprehensive recommendations for implementing emerging technology.

Industry consortium Sematech has announced that it will begin using x-rays to examine the properties of semiconductor materials for 32 nm manufacturing. The technique will allow evaluating phase, crystallinity, and strain in SiGe films. The approach will provide more accurate information about the material's electrical characteristics than has been available.

Electronic designs remain hostage to a handful of mechanical holdovers from earlier eras. This item from EDN Magazine reports that another such artifact has fallen to an electronic equivalent. In particular, it proposes a simple electronic circuit to replace the conventional push-button switch that toggles power on and off, describing both its design and operation.

Do you think we need to act to combat climate change? Some scientists are taking radical approaches. Red Orbit reports on studies of artificial trees to trap carbon, volcanic pollutants that screen out the sun's rays, and other possibilities, reminding us that any solution will carry its own side-effects. And what if climate change is a necessary effect?