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It was more than 130 years ago in 1885 when Gottlieb Daimler invented the first prototype for the modern gas engine, and in 1886 Karl Benz patented his three-wheel Benz Motor Car, Model No. 1. Yet...

As consumers, we see evidence of the Internet of Things (IoT) all around us. A growing number of everyday objects in our homes and cars are now digitally connected in a way that allows us to...

From breakfast meetings to takeout or holiday potlucks to celebratory dinners, many of us take the ability to eat what we like, when we like, for granted. For others, grabbing that lunchtime wrap...

Whether or not you know the difference between an Italian Caravaggio and a Jackson Pollock painting, you’ve likely visited a museum or old church at some point and run across art that “just...

From PCRAM and MRAM to RRAM and more, there’s a whole new alphabet soup of memory technologies making their way to the fab. Fueling this development are technology advances in gaming and mobile...

Fields of wind turbines and homes with shiny solar panels on their roofs have become part of the natural landscape in many areas today, but the notion of harnessing renewable sources of energy...

Among the hot topics in our industry today, connectivity and big data analytics provide wide-ranging application possibilities, so it’s no surprise to find their use in mobile products,...

Once the domain of the military and hobbyists, the market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, now encompasses a wide range of commercial applications and is expected to hit more than...

Looking ahead into the new year in technology often proves quite interesting and educational. For 2018, one well-established market – automotive – is gaining the attention of many technology...

According to IBM, we send 294 billion emails, post more than 230 million tweets, and conduct over a billion Google searches every day, while trillions of sensors populate the Internet of Things...

New semiconductor applications are ever changing and improving our lives, from new smartphones and wearables to healthcare, factory automation, and artificial intelligence. The humble memory chip...

Who hasn’t heard of Pokémon GO? Since its launch in 2016, the mobile augmented reality (AR) game has exploded in popularity worldwide. More importantly, it has been attributed to being the...

“You cannot be serious!” On June 22, 1981, on Wimbledon No. 1 Court, John McEnroe, former tennis champion and 1999 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee, took issue with a debatable line...

From discovering the circulatory system in 1616 to performing the first heart transplant in 1967, the world of medicine has long been one of experimentation and innovation. Today, it is also a...

For many students, technology is shaping a significantly different kind of learning environment than the one their parents experienced. Devices like smartphones are not only being used to...

From Star Trek’s Data to Star Wars’ C-3PO, the idea of humanoid robots has fascinated people for years. Back in the real world, robots build automobiles in factories, mow lawns, and even...

We often hear that advanced chips contain billions of transistors – an incredible, mind-blowing fact to be sure – but did you know that large-scale integrated chips (that are the size of a...

“Data is giving rise to a new economy” – The Economist (2017). This compelling reality makes the continued development of high-capacity data storage technologies like 3D NAND ever more...

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which promotes multilateral cooperation, economic growth, and social progress. Now entering its second...

Wired communications can be traced back to 1844, when Samuel Morse (creator of the code of dots and dashes that bears his name) sent the first telegraph message from the U.S. Supreme Court...

We use technology to improve nearly every area of life, and doting on our pets’ well-being is no exception. In fact, many pet stores now have “tech centers” that offer the latest gadgets for...

In Ancient Egypt, shoes denoted social status, even distinguishing commoners and nobility by the color and length of their footwear. Recreated ruby slippers commemorating the 50th anniversary of...

From smart grids to smart buildings, the Internet of Things (IoT) has swept across Asia. Going well beyond consumer wearables, today’s city planners are leveraging IoT-enabled technologies to...

“Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you,” are the familiar words of Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant during the world’s very first phone call on March 10, 1876. Shortly after this...

Imagine being able to deposit a film of material just a few atomic layers at a time. As impossible as that sounds, atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a reality. In fact, it’s being used in an...

Household kitchens have been revolutionized by chips (we’re talking the non-edible kind). Some of us may bask in fond memories of “low-tech” cooking like toasting marshmallows over an open...

This year, more than a billion people from over 193 countries are expected to participate in Earth Day activities. Marking its 47th anniversary on Saturday, April 22, 2017, Earth Day is an annual...

Panel-level fan-out chip manufacturing – using large square or rectangular substrates instead of wafers – is being developed as a means to lower the cost of back-end processes for some...

User experience designers around the world recognize that a screen isn’t always the most logical interface for every task or every person. Currently, much of our time is dominated by screens. At...

Ever open the body of your smartphone (perhaps unintentionally) and see small, black rectangles stuck on a circuit board? Those black rectangles are packaged chips. The external chip structure...

The next major trend in consumer wearables may be smart fashion. For years, high fashion designers and celebrities have been incorporating smart technology into their clothing for visual effects....

Did you know that different patterns require different types of multiple patterning? Today’s advanced chips are more complex than ever before, with transistors and other structures that are...

Greek philosopher Democritus (460-370 BC) first proposed the existence of an ultimate particle, which he described as “atomos.” He probably never dreamed that one day there would be devices so...

The lines between science fiction and reality continue to blur thanks to technological advances in devices like thermal imaging equipment, 3D printing, and even neural implants. Technology –...

From smartphones to televisions to refrigerators, it is hard to go more than a few hours without using a semiconductor-enabled device. In fact, since the mid-20th century, semiconductors have been...

Transistors are at the heart of our cherished electronics. Millions, or even billions, of these tiny switches go to work for us when we check our mobile phones, use our computers, start our...

Multiple patterning is an innovative approach to scaling semiconductors, but it also poses significant challenges controlling process variations. Lam’s Rick Gottscho, executive vice president of...

The semiconductor industry uses so many unique terms, it practically has its own language. To keep up on the latest developments, knowing that “language” can be really helpful. For instance,...

From the earliest chips to the latest technologies, silicon has long played a major role in semiconductor manufacturing as the substrates (wafers) on which devices are built. Yet silicon wasn’t...

Dave Hemker, CTO at Lam Research, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to look at some of the key issues on the process and manufacturing side, and some of the key developments that will...

“‘There’s a law about Moore’s law,’ jokes Peter Lee, a vice-president at Microsoft Research: ‘The number of people predicting the death of Moore’s law doubles every two years.’”...

Since its introduction in the 1980s, NAND flash memory has radically changed how we store our digital data. Remember ordering duplicate photos when getting camera film developed or burning your...

When it comes to aspect ratios – how tall an object is vs. how wide it is – even the tallest buildings in the world hardly compare to the extreme dimensions in the semiconductor industry,...

We often hear the word “inflection” used in the semiconductor industry, but what does it mean? In general, inflection refers to a point of change. In mathematics, for instance, an inflection...

One of the most astounding aspects of semiconductor chips is their incredibly small scale. Practically measured in atoms, some feature dimensions are on the order of nanometers (nm) – that’s...

With the new year underway, you may be wondering what lies ahead for the semiconductor world. Once again, Solid State Technology has checked in with industry leaders for their thoughts on the...