Connie Duncan

Semiconductor industry analyst and CEO of VLSIresearch Inc., G. Dan Hutcheson discusses the radically different Producer® Selectra™ etch system and extreme selectivity's importance for the industry. 

Applied's Sree Kesapragada and Miller Allen, discuss the Endura Cirrus HTX which meets chipmakers’ copper interconnect patterning needs by extending the TiN metal hardmask —the industry’s material of choice — to the 10nm and below nodes.

Applied’s Ofer Adan, Global Product and Technology manager, discusses the technical innovations of the recently announced metrology tool for 3D devices.

Applied technologists discuss TSV processes and integration, and review new requirements in a typical integration flow. 

Historically, many of the developments in the semiconductor industry have stemmed from the continued progress in lithography. However, with the persistent uncertainty of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) for future-generation patterning, the industry has developed techniques such as self-alignment double patterning (SADP) to extend optical lithography. In a video produced by SPIETV, Chris Bencher of Applied Materials Office of the Chief Technology Officer, reviews the evolution of SADP and looks to its future. 

Every year, media outlets publish year-end reviews and outlooks for the New Year. Solid State Technology, a leading magazine providing the latest electronics manufacturing news, analysis and product information related to semiconductor manufacturing features an annual outlook and invited Randhir Thakur, Executive Vice President, General Manager, Silicon Systems Group, Applied Materials to give his assessment of the major trends for 2014. He identified the shifts to 20 nanometer designs, FinFET transistors and 3D NAND as the game-changing innovations and discussed how Applied is focused on providing the precision materials engineering solutions to address the challenges involved in advancing these technologies.

Applied Materials' Schubert Chu, Epi Products Head, Silicon Systems Group, discusses how Applied's new epi technology for NMOS transistors increases transistor speed in an interview with Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief for Solid State Technology.

Chip makers and equipment suppliers are taking new steps forward in exploring revolutionary materials and techniques needed to continue enabling breakthroughs in microchip performance.  The pace of innovation is ramping at a rate never-before experienced in the industry.  We’re going to see more changes in the next five years than we’ve seen in last 15. Without these efforts, the innovation engine that has produced generation after generation of mobility and computing devices capable of astonishing capabilities will stall. One area where disruptive change is coming is the interconnect. Following is a short explanation of this transition.