Figure 1 shows that after surging 36% in 2021, semiconductor industry capital spending is forecast to jump 24% in 2022 to a new all-time high of $190.4 billion, up 86% from just three years earlier in 2019. Moreover, if capital spending increases by ≥10% in 2022, it would mark the
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Wafer cost is a critical component of IC cost calculation. Wafer cost is based on 4 main factors: wafer technology node, e.g. 5nm, 65nm, 130nm, etc. Wafer options/features, e.g. all the options required on top of the plain vanilla, e.g. mim cap, flash, high voltage, etc. Wafer volume, e.g. how
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There are numerous steps that are involved in the design of digital (or mixed signal) circuits starting from system specifications right till the chip is manufactured. One of these steps is a process of transforming a functionally described circuit (normally in netlist) into physical layout at the lowest level (normally
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First introduced by Bell Labs in 1957, wire bonding is an integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing method used in more than 40 billion microelectronic devices each year. Wire bonding is used extensively for interconnecting semiconductor chips to package leads and many other applications that allow RF devices to meet stringent size,
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This is not the first foray for Intel in the foundry services space. Back in 2013, Intel made its first attempt and started offering production of chips for Altera using the 14nm process. Soon after a couple more companies were announced to have partnered with the Intel Custom Foundry division:
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The report forecasts total semiconductor sales will rise 11% this year following a very strong 25% increase in 2021 and an 11% increase in 2020. If achieved, it would mark the first time since 1993-1995 that the semiconductor market has enjoyed three consecutive years of double-digit growth. From 2016-2021, the
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