Ever since the TSMC OIP Forum where Dr. Shang-Yi Chiang openly asked customers, When do you want 3D Transistors (FinFETS)? I have heard quite a few debates on the topic inside the top fabless semiconductor companies. The bottom line, in my expert opinion, is that TSMC will add FinFETS to the N20 (20nm) process node in parallel with planar transistors and here are the reasons why.View the full article HERE
Leading-edge wafer fab capacity is not going to become a commodity item, say analysts Future Horizons. Instead, supply will be limited and longer term supply commitments are the new name of the game. The era of ever-cheaper, freely available wafers is over, at least at the leading edge. Although investment in fab bounced back in 2010, it failed to reach the level of investment seen in 2007, was 9% percent lower than the previous investment peak in 2000, and significantly slowed in Q4 2010, despite the fact that utilisation was running at 96.6% and on allocation.View the full article HERE
As we head into November, Semico’s forecast of a weak second half is showing to be accurate. June, July, and August all had poor performance and according to the IPI, we will see that trend continue into 1Q12. February of 2012 is still forecasted to be the bottom as OEMs are currently burning [...]
Texas Instruments announced their bq25504 power management integrated circuit for energy harvesting. The boost charger for nano (ultra low) power energy harvesting features circuitry to protect the energy storage element from over voltage and under voltage conditions and to kick-start the system when the battery is deeply discharged. The TI bq25504 IC manages the microwatts [...]
Microchannel Heat Sink: Fabrication and Liquid Cooling System for High Heat Flux Integrated Circuits is a book written by Shahi Riaz (Laird Technologies) and Dr. Dereje Agonafer (University of Texas at Arlington). The book illustrates the analytical, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental studies of microchannel heat sink (MHS). It describes the fabrication process of [...]