Oct 25, 2024

Intel’s court win; high-NA benchmarks and new maskless litho; SiC down, GaN up; Natcast’s plan; Xiaomi’s 3nm chip; semi tax credit rules; RISC-V; lithium mine; AI-edge expansion. Europe’s top court ruled in Intel‘s favor, voiding a $1.1 billion fine imposed by the European Union and dismissing charges of anti-competitive behavior. IBM released yield benchmarks for high-NA EUV , which serve as proof points that the newest advanced litho equipment will enable scaling beyond the 2nm process node. Also on the lithography front, Nikon is developing a maskless digital litho system for advanced packaging applications, with a 1µm line/space resolution, for 2026 release. Fig.1: High NA EUV lithography enables continuous scaling of copper damascene interconnects down to 21nm pitch using single expose patterning. Source: IBM. Xiaomi reportedly successfully taped out  China’s first 3nm mobile chip , according to the South China Morning Post. Few details were made public, including performance metrics. Is the wide-bandgap market starting to shift direction? Wolfspeed suspended plans to build a €3 billion plant in Germany that would have focused on automotive SiC chips, citing slow EV adoption, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Texas Instruments, is quadrupling its manufacturing capacity for gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors, boosting capacity at its existing Texas GaN plant and its fab in Aizu, Japan, which just started production. CSIS published recommendations to policymakers on de-risking the  semiconductor supply chain . Lam Research is using extended reality (XR) technologies in its pilot operations to help identify issues early in the virtual build phase, provide real-time instructions during a tool build, detect early ergonomic issues, and reduce the number of accidents on the floor. A major lithium mine in Nevada received approval from the U.S. government. The Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron mine is projected to supply enough lithium to power 370,000 EVs annually. Synaptics expanded in Hsinchu, Taiwan, adding to its existing presence in Taipei. The Hsinchu facilities will be home to the team that develops AI-enabled edge devices for IoT across consumer, automotive, enterprise, and industrial applications. In U.S. government news: The U.S. will make up to $1.6 billion available to fund advanced packaging R&D under the CHIPS Act’s. Hemlock Semiconductor could receive up to $325 million under the U.S. CHIPS Act to boost production of semiconductor-grade polysilicon. Natcast released its strategic plan for operating the National Semiconductor Technology Center. U.S. tax officials released final rules for a 25% tax credit for certain investments in semiconductor manufacturing facilities and equipment, including wafer production. The White House issued a memorandum on advancing leadership in AI , especially for national security and safety. The RISC-V Summit was held this week in Santa Clara, CA, highlighting these recent announcements: RISC-V International ratified the RVA23 Profile standard, essential for software portability across many hardware implementations and help to avoid vendor lock-in. SiFive announced availability of its HiFive Premier development board Microchip expanded its 64-bit portfolio with PQS-enabled PIC64HX microprocessors Fractile will integrate Andes RISC-V vector processor with its in-memory computing architecture. Quick links to more news: Mycronic acquired Modus High-Tech Electronics, a provider of automated optical inspection systems. Oriole Networks raised $22 million for its photonics technology to create networks of AI chips and combine their processing power to speed LLM training. Earnings releases this week for chip industry (and adjacent) companies include: SK hynix , Texas Instruments, and   IBM. Marketing reports released this week: Global shipments of silicon wafers are projected to decline 2% in 2024, with a strong rebound of 10% delayed until 2025, according to SEMI’s latest silicon shipment forecast. IDTechEx forecasts that the global chiplet market will reach $411 billion by 2035, driven by HPC demands across sectors such as data centers and AI. Yole Group projects that wafer fab equipment revenue will reach $133 billion in 2024, and the overall market reaching $165 billion by 2029. Yole also noted that advanced packaging revenue grew by 5% in Q2 2024 to reach $10.9 billion and anticipates a Q3 2024 increase of 15.5% to $12.6 billion. Techcet expects the semiconductor chip manufacturing materials market to see 3% to 4% growth in revenue for 2024, with total revenue exceeding $84 billion by 2028. TrendForce predicts that mature process capacity will grow 6% in 2025, primarily driven by Chinese fabs. Security The introduction of large language models into the EDA flow could significantly reduce the time, effort, and cost of designing secure chips and systems, but they also could open the door to more sophisticated attacks. Recent security research: A Survey on SoC Security Verification Methods at the Pre-silicon Stage (U. of Florida) PROTECTS: Progressive Rtl Obfuscation with ThrEshold Control Technique during architectural Synthesis (U. of Hyderabad, et al) IBM launched its Guardium Data Security Center with unified, SaaS-first data security capabilities during hybrid cloud, AI, and quantum transformation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged four companies with making materially misleading disclosures regarding cybersecurity risks and intrusions. CISA issued a number of  alerts/advisories and endorsed the Department of Homeland Security’s “See Something, Say Something” campaign . Product News Arteris announced the availability of a pre-verified data center solution that combines the company’s Ncore cache-coherent interconnect IP with SiFive’s P870-D CPU. The pre-verified solution is aimed at providing fast, low-risk development cycles for data centers. Arm released its ExecuTorch Beta , which combines the company’s compute platform with a framework from Meta’s PyTorch team. The new technology will be targeted at AI models on edge devices. ExecuTorch can be used across Arm’s Cortex-A CPUs and Ethos-U NPUs, and integrates micro-kernels optimized for 4-bit quantization. Arm also announced its Compute Subsystems for Client , which boasts a 46% improvement in time-to-first-token for AI applications. The CSS incorporates the Arm Cortex-X925 CPU and Immortalis-G925 GPU to handle AI applications on smartphone devices. Keysight and Siemens EDA expanded their partnership to combine the former’s Advanced Design System with the latter’s Xpedition Enterprise Suite of EDA tools. The product, which is to be used for designing digital systems and RF circuits, is included in Keysight’s Advanced Design System 2025 and Siemens’ Xpedition Enterprise release 2409. Siemens EDA also introduced the latest iterations of its Solid Edge software , including Solid Edge X, which is accessible as a cloud-enabled secure software as service. The new versions include several improvements, including improved workflow and user interface, more advanced customization, elevated sheet metal design, and enhanced collaboration features. Toray Industries debuted high-speed laser transfer and bonding technology for mounting optical semiconductors made from indium phosphide and other III-V compounds on silicon substrates. Tanaka Precious Metals uncorked a palladium alloy designed for probe pins used in the final testing stage of semiconductor packages. SK Keyfoundry expanded its high-voltage foundry services portfolio with a high-voltage IC process. Universal Robots unveiled its UR AI accelerator , including features such as pose estimation, tracking, object detection, path planning, and image classification. Automotive Infineon released its CoolSiC Schottky diode 2000 V G5, the first discrete SiC diode with a breakdown voltage of 2000 V, suitable for applications with DC link voltages up to 1500 VDC and with current ratings from 10 to 80, ideal for solar and EV charging. Workhorse Group adopted Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio to streamline activities as it builds electric trucks for sustainable last mile delivery . NHTSA opened an investigation into Tesla due to four reports of vehicles crashing in areas of reduced roadway visibility while full self-driving mode was engaged. Stellantis and Factorial are road-testing certain EVs with solid-state batteries . Research Dongguk University researchers developed a self-compliant memristive device capable of multilevel operation, and a crossbar array for forming neural networks. University of Sydney researchers used lasers to generate guided sound waves on the surface of a chip via special glass to allow interactions between light and sound. The design has potential for environmental sensing and information processing devices, and the Stimulated Brillouin scattering technique has potential in 5G/6G networks. A TU/e researcher proposed inverse estimation for multi-scale models via an ML-based reduced surrogate, with applications in semiconductor manufacturing. imec looked at how silicon nitride photonics can help develop proteomics solutions, which entail identifying and quantifying the full spectrum of proteins in a cell or tissue. Events and Further Reading