A long-time evangelist of 3D integration technologies, Herb Reiter puts more than 20 years of experiences in technical and business roles at semiconductor and EDA companies to work, providing a holistic perspective and insight on how to bring 3D integration to the masses.
Sustainability is Busting Out all Over!
When prepping for this month’s sustainability blog, the song, June is Busting Out All Over, from Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, kept running through my head; possibly as it’s in May, June, and July, when the majority of companies sustainability reports are released. Once the reports are released, the sustainability experts...
Semiconductor Industry Collaboration is the Key
40 years ago in 1984, the semiconductor industry was in one of its many transitions. The USA had lost its leadership role in memory and companies were starting to transition out of the DRAM business. Logic chips were gaining in importance as the personal computing business was a few years...
Will AI be Powered by Renewables? Maybe, But Not for Long
Earth Day has passed. Companies’ ESP/social responsibility reports are beginning to appear and they have been commenting on their progress in their Q1 earnings report. The early data in the semiconductor and microelectronics segment looks encouraging. The percentage of renewables in their energy portfolio is increasing. Water conservation and water-positive...
How Advanced Lithography Evolution Will Impact 3D Packaging
In 1987, the lithography team I worked with returned from SPIE and presented our findings from the conference. Ultra-violet (UV) lithography was just crossing the 1µm line widths, and the industry was looking for what might be next to replace it. At that time, e-beam lithography was still in contention...
SEMI Kicks off Year Three of the SCC and Startups for Sustainability
It is popular for mainstream media to publicize different industry’s energy consumption and environmental habits. The semiconductor industry is not immune to this occasional finger-pointing concerning energy consumption, water consumption, and hazardous chemicals that are used to produce the chips that are ubiquitous in our daily lives. Major publications highlight...
Taking Stock of Global Investments in Semiconductor Manufacturing
The geopolitical race to take the lead in semiconductors is heating up as global investments in semiconductor manufacturing take hold. Several weeks ago, the Department of Commerce finally made a big US CHIPS Act award, giving Intel $8.5 billion of the allotted 38 billion set to go to semiconductor manufacturing....
Electronics Recycling: There’s Gold in Those Old Electronic Gadgets!
When you replace your PC with an AI-enabled one, will you make sure your old device goes into an electronics recycling program? In November of 2023, I wrote about artificial intelligence (AI) personal computers (PCs) possibly being a growth driver of the 2024 PC and semiconductor growth. Our trusty editor...
Will the Intel Foundry Model Succeed?
The foundry world has been big news in the past few weeks. TSMC started up the Kumamoto Fab, Japan’s leading-edge semiconductor technology center, partnering with Tenstorrent on RISC-V and chiplets to be manufactured at Rapidus. The biggest non-surprise news flash was the roll-out of Intel’s Foundry Direct Connect, which they...
What the Ski and Semiconductor Industries Have in Common
From November to April for the past seven years, I have spent a considerable amount of time on the snow as a ski instructor. In 2019 the International Ski and Snowboard Federation implemented a ban on fluorinated waxes that took place in July of 2021. The change left skiers scrambling,...
No Slow Down In Sight for Semiconductor Growth in China
At ISS 2024, SEMI reported that fab equipment sales look to be flat in 2024 — right around $100 billion. We won’t know for sure until the final numbers are in for the year, but at the moment, it’s a pretty good estimate. TechInsights has wafer fab equipment (WFE) coming...
