ST and GlobalFoundries are to build a 300mm fab at Crolles. The fab will support a range of technologies, including FDSOI, down to 18nm. There will be significant financial support from France for the project which is costing $5.7 billion. The fab is targeted to ramp to full capacity by 2026, with up to 620,000 300mm wafer per year production at ...
Manufacturing
Cardiff University innovation hub opens its doors
The Translational Research Hub (TRH), designed to foster collaboration between industry and scientists, has officially opened at Cardif University. It is the home of the Institute for Compound Semiconductors (ICS) and Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI), and was funded by UK and Welsh governments – including £17.3m through UKRPIF, £12m from Welsh Government, £13.1m in European funding administered by WEFO and ...
Samsung first to 3nm
Today, Samsung announced that it has started initial production of its 3nm process node applying Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architecture. “Multi-Bridge-Channel FET (MBCFET), Samsung’s GAA technology defies the performance limitations of FinFET, improving power efficiency by reducing the supply voltage level, while also enhancing performance by increasing drive current capability,” says a statement from Samsung. Samsung is starting the first application ...
The gateway for robots – 5G technology
Technology could power innovative robotic applications, but attention needs to be paid to testing component parts, says Khushboo Kalyani of LitePoint. For industrial, automotive and manufacturing robotics applications, 5G technology offers high speed, reliable, dense and low latency connectivity that is suitable for fixed location or mobile use cases. When discussing the exciting applications for 5G, healthcare, autonomous vehicles, drones ...
Embedded World: No shortage of industrial Raspberry Pi MCUs
At Embedded World today, Raspberry Pi was giving away its Pico development boards to all comers, to emphasise that there is no shortage of its RP2040 microcontroller, which was recently qualified for the industrial -40 to +85°C temperature range – previously it was to -20°C. “We risk-bought quite a lot of wafers, and could sell one to two million per ...
Aerospacelab breaks ground on Charleroi satellite megafactory
Aerospacelab, the geospatial intelligence startup, is building what it describes as a satellite megafactory at Charleroi, with the goal of achieving a yearly production capacity of 500 satellites. What will be the largest satellite manufacturing plant in Europe follows the launch of its facility in Ottignies-Louvain-La-Neuve (which will eventually produce up to 24 satellites a year, starting in Q3 of ...
SkyWater adds FDSOI SRAM IP
Skywater, the US hi-rel foundry, has added FDSOI SRAM on 90nm to its IP portfolio. Mobile Semiconductor will provide two SRAM compilers for SkyWater customers developing products on its RH90 platform. This is the latest step in SkyWater’s RH90 technology roadmap. The company has leveraged the $170 million investment by the Department of Defense (DOD) to broaden onshore production capabilities ...
3D automated optical inspection down to 008004 (M0201) and up to 25mm tall
Saki Corporation has announced a series of high-speed 3D automated optical inspection systems for PCBs with a combination of very small and tall components. Called the 3Di series, its newly-developed camera system can simultaneously inspect parts in 008004 packages (metric 0201, ~200 x 100μm) and 25mm tall parts. The first 3Di machine will debut on 15-17 June at JISSO PROTEC ...
Renesas builds 300mm line for electric vehicle power semiconductors
Renesas is putting Y90bn into a 300mm power semiconductor fab in Kai City, Yamanashi Prefecture, citing the rise of electric vehicles as motivation. This is the Kofu Factory, closed in October 2014 when it ran 150mm and 200mm wafer lines in its 18,000m2 cleanroom, now to re-open in 2024 “to enhance production capacity for power semiconductors such as IGBTs”, according to the ...
New glue for automotive, wearable and audio technology
Bostik has announced a prototype cyanoacrylate (‘superglue’) adhesive “for long-term critical applications such as those required in the automotive and electronics industry”, it said. “It will propel instant adhesives’ use outside of repair and maintenance applications, into a solution that can be relied upon for longer-term, structural engineering use.” It is a two-part n-butyl cyanoacrylate-based adhesive, with the hydrophobic butyl ...
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