In 2011 450mm looked inevitable. TSMC’s then CEO Morris Chang had stated the company’s intention to start trial production on 450mm wafers in 2013-14 and to be in volume production in 2015-16. “One day in 2013, I think around March,  I went to Morris Chang’s office. I said, ‘I don’t think we should promote these 450mm wafers,”says Shang-Yi Chiang, TSMC’s ...

What are the topics covered? There's EV charging, the state of the semiconductor market for 2023, a tribute to Gordon Moore, a SEMI report on fab capacity, and a video interview from Embedded World 2023...

STMicroelectronics had built a general purpose power consumption tester and a general purpose power supply for any ≤3.6V microcontroller into its latest programme/debug probe for STM32 MCUs. Called STLINK-V3PWR (see photo), the unit’s measurement section is compatible with EEMBC’s ULPMark tests, according to ST. It provides a programmable 1.6 to 3.6V 500mA (100mV steps, protected at 550mA) source (‘OUT’, see ...

Power supply component failures are perhaps the most common malfunctions affecting electronic devices. This is due to several reasons. First of all, the systems supplying current to the rest of the circuit are directly exposed to all kinds of input interferences – voltage surges, power shortage, etc. Another reason is the use of poor quality components in stabilizers and converters ...

Diodes has introduced silicon carbide mosfet rated at 1,200V and 37A for industrial motor drives, solar inverters and electric vehicle battery chargers. Dubbed DMWS120H100SM4, its packages transfers heat at 0.6°C/W “making it well-suited for applications running in harsh environments”, according to the company, Rds(on) is typically 80mΩ (Vg=15V, 100mΩmax) and gate charge is typically 52nC (-4/+15Vg, 800Vd, 20Ad). Its 37A ...

Cortec’s EcoEmitter is a stick-on capsule designed to protect un-ventilated enclosed electronic and optical equipment from corrosion. Each pod is intended to protect 0.25m3 (8.8feet3). “Vapour phase corrosion inhibitors emit and saturate the enclosure via diffusion, filling all void spaces and recessed areas with protective vapour molecules,” according to the company. “These molecules are attracted to and adsorb onto metallic ...

Stackpole’s RNCU 1206 thin film chip resistors can handle up to 1W and offer tolerances down to 0.1% and temperature coefficients down to 10ppm/°C. The AEC compliant parts have “excellent electrical and environmental stability, showing minimal resistance shifts over most industry standard tests and are anti-sulphur per ASTM-B-809-95 with shifts less than 1%”, according to the company. They are also ...

Earlier this morning Japan introduced export controls on chip-making equipment capable of sub-14nm processing. It will include etch, cleaning, deposition and litho among  23 different types of equipment. All immersion litho machines are included in the restrictions. “We are fulfilling our responsibility as a technological nation to contribute to international peace and stability,” said a statement from Japan’’s Ministry of ...

Yesterday the SOX was at its highest since last April 6th after rising 27% this year. This week the index was boosted by an upbeat revised forecast from Infineon saying that 2023 revenues will be “meaningfully above” its earlier forecast of €15.5 billion, and a statement from Sanjay Mehrotra CEO of Micron that: “We believe that customer inventories have reduced ...

Korea has passed a law raising the level of tax breaks on investments in chip manufacturing by large companies from 8% to 15%. The move is estimated to be worth $1.9 billion to the Korean chip industry. For SMEs the rate will be raised from 16% to 25% The law is being called the ‘Korea Chips Act’ after the US ...