Overview of Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) Technology and Historical Development
Shockley's early transistor game most likely inspired the notion of fusing silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge) to create an alloy for use in transistor engineering. However, this concept has just become a reality in the last 15 years due to the challenges associated ...
Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) is one of the highest-resolution physical-analysis techniques used in semiconductor failure analysis. It allows failure analysts to examine extremely small structural and material anomalies that may be impossible to characterize using optical microscopy or conventional SEM alone.
TEM works by transmitting a high-energy electron beam through an ...
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) is one of the most important imaging techniques used in semiconductor failure analysis. While optical microscopes remain extremely useful for initial inspection, many semiconductor defects are simply too small to characterize adequately with visible-light microscopy. SEM uses a focused beam of electrons rather than light, allowing engineers ...
IC short circuit failure analysis is the process of determining where an unintended electrical connection exists inside a semiconductor device, package or interconnect structure and identifying the physical defect that created the short.
A short circuit may initially appear only as excessive supply current, unexpectedly low resistance between two nodes, abnormal ...
Dr. Morris Chang is not my hero. He might be the most important person in the semiconductor industry in our lifetime, but he is not my hero. I have nothing against him. I’ve never met him and probably will never will. Instead, I meet my heroes usually after tape-out, when ...
Kaiserslautern, Germany – May 21, 2025 – Creonic GmbH, a leading provider of ready-to-use IP cores for ASIC and FPGA applications, announces the release of its new oFEC (Open Forward Error Correction) codec IP core. The solution supports next-generation optical and high-speed communication systems and is now available in both ...
Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (SAM) is a non-destructive imaging technique widely used in semiconductor failure analysis to inspect structures and interfaces hidden inside IC packages. Unlike optical microscopy, which relies on visible light, or X-ray inspection, which relies primarily on differences in material density and X-ray absorption, SAM uses high-frequency acoustic waves. This ...
With the creeping rise in the price of gold, many microelectronics manufacturing companies have been looking for alternatives to reduce the cost of ball bonding. Recently, the trend has been to look into the use copper wire. However, there are many drawbacks to using copper wire, including the short shelf ...
Chiplets are a relatively recent advancement in semiconductor technology that involves breaking down a traditional monolithic integrated circuit (IC) into smaller, individual semiconductor components or "chiplets." These chiplets can be designed and manufactured independently, and then they are integrated onto a common substrate or package to create a more complex ...
PHIX B.V. of Enschede, The Netherlands, is a Dutch packaging foundry that assembles their customers’ photonic integrated circuits into complete modules. As these modules evolve from initial prototypes into mature products, the manufacturing volumes become much larger and a higher level of automation is required. This aspect of photonic device ...
