The Semiconductor Industry Is Set to Surpass $1 Trillion by 2030, Driving Industry Innovation
The global semiconductor market posted a record $791.7 billion in 2025, a 25.6% jump, and is projected to top $1 trillion by 2026. Growth is driven by AI, data centers, 5G/6G, electric vehicles and edge computing. Marco Van Der Haar of Malvern Panalytical highlights that advanced material analytics—from precursor powders to thin‑film control and 3D packaging—will be critical to sustain yields and profitability as volumes rise.
Chip-Processing Method Could Assist Cryptography Schemes to Keep Data Secure
MIT engineers unveiled two low‑cost hardware innovations that could reshape security and computing at the edge. First, they devised a twin physical‑unclonable‑function (PUF) fabrication method that splits a chip so each half shares a unique fingerprint, enabling direct authentication without...
CEA-Leti and NcodiN Partner to Industrialise 300 Mm Silicon Photonics
CEA‑Leti announced a series of strategic collaborations aimed at scaling next‑generation silicon photonics and memory technologies. In partnership with French startup NcodiN, the institute will transfer the company’s nanolaser‑enabled optical interposer to a 300 mm silicon‑photonic process, targeting sub‑0.1 pJ/bit links for...
Unlocking Yield Improvements in Advanced Packaging Through Materials-Driven Failure Analysis
Advanced packaging—3D ICs, FOWLP, chiplets—now underpins AI, 5G, and edge computing, but its complex material interfaces are creating severe yield pressure. Traditional defect inspection alone cannot capture the subtle, multiscale failures that arise from thermal stress, CTE mismatch, and contamination....
Optimising SiCr Deposition for High-Yield Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS Manufacturing with Picosecond Ultrasonics
Picosecond ultrasonic (PULSE™) technology provides non‑contact, sub‑angstrom thickness metrology for silicon‑chromium (SiCr) films used in bipolar‑CMOS‑DMOS (BCD) devices. The technique, validated against TEM, achieved repeatability better than 0.5 Å (1σ) and captured wafer‑wide uniformity across 49 points. Simultaneously, reflectivity measurements revealed...
Ford’s New Battery Container Is Here To Take On The Tesla Megapack
Ford has launched a new subsidiary, Ford Energy, to produce the DC block, a modular stationary battery container built in Kentucky with prismatic LFP cells. The 20‑foot container holds 5.45 MWh, offers two‑hour or four‑hour discharge options, and is designed for...
Panasonic’s 4680 Mass Production Pushed Back yet Again
Panasonic Energy has postponed mass production of its 4680 cylindrical battery cell for a second time, still awaiting a purchase order from its primary customer, likely Tesla. The original 2024 launch date slipped to March 2026, which was also missed,...
What’s Really Needed For Advanced Test?
Advanced test in semiconductor manufacturing promises adaptive binning, feed‑forward models and real‑time analytics, but the industry’s biggest obstacle is data quality. PDF Solutions highlights that misaligned metadata and incomplete tool‑level data routinely break automated test flows, forcing engineers to intervene...
The Specialty Device Surge Part 3: Solving The Process Control Challenges Of MEMS, Photonics, Co-Packaged Optics, And More
The article outlines how specialty semiconductor devices—MEMS sensors, CMOS image sensors, SiC/GaN power transistors, and photonic/co‑packaged optics—require tighter process control than traditional logic chips. It details the specific challenges each class faces, such as wafer‑level uniformity, multi‑layer variability, and defect...
Complete End-To-End Closed-Loop Product Yield Ramp And Learning
Yield ramping at advanced semiconductor nodes is increasingly difficult as designs grow larger, more heterogeneous, and generate massive test data. A closed‑loop learning flow that ties together test pattern generation, diagnosis, volume analytics, and failure analysis can compress the learning...
Ensuring AI Reliability: Mitigating Silent Data Corruption Risks
Silent Data Corruption (SDC) is emerging as a critical reliability threat for large‑scale AI training and inference, as highlighted in a new Open Compute Project whitepaper co‑authored by NVIDIA, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. The paper links rising SDC rates to...
AI Accelerator Testing Depends On DFT Innovations
The rise of AI accelerators is reshaping semiconductor test flows, demanding deeper functional testing, advanced DFT techniques, and continuous monitoring throughout a chip’s lifecycle. I/O and lane‑repair capabilities are emerging as critical yield‑enhancing tools, while system‑level testing is essential for...
Advanced Metrology for Backside Metallization Using Picosecond Laser Ultrasonics
Picosecond Ultrasonics (PULSE) technology is emerging as the preferred metrology solution for backside metallization (BSM) in advanced semiconductor manufacturing. The non‑contact, non‑destructive method can accurately measure film thickness and elastic modulus across single‑layer and multilayer metal stacks ranging from 50 nm...
The AI Server Challenge: Testing Power At Scale
AI servers are hitting a power‑delivery bottleneck as accelerators run at ultra‑low voltages while drawing tens of amps. Multi‑stage converters are consolidating to higher distribution voltages to cut losses, but this raises the stakes for accurate, high‑current testing. Traditional test...
Home Win: Challenging The Traditional Semiconductor Manufacturing Model
Custom Interconnect Ltd. (CIL) has opened a 64,000 sq ft BP2 facility, the UK’s largest semiconductor packaging operation, featuring a 15,000 sq ft ISO 7 cleanroom and the only domestic wafer‑level chip‑scale packaging system. The plant integrates high‑volume PCB assembly with semiconductor assembly, delivering up...
Arm’s Software Chief Sees Human Language as the New Way to Program
Arm’s senior vice president for AI and developer platforms, Alex Spinelli, says the company is moving beyond chip design to build its own AGI‑class CPU and a new Performix software suite that lets engineers write code using natural‑language “recipes.” The...
How Direct-to-Chip Cooling Is Helping MSPs Meet AI Demand
Managed Service Providers are confronting a surge in AI-driven workloads that outpace the capacity of traditional air‑cooled data centers. The heat density of modern GPUs demands cooling solutions that can handle 60‑120 kW per rack, prompting a shift toward direct‑to‑chip liquid...
New Mobile C-UAS High-Power Microwave System for Drone Swarm Defense & Rapid Tracking
ThinKom Solutions unveiled Alecto, a mobile high‑power microwave (HPM) system built for counter‑UAS missions that can engage drone swarms while on the move. The platform leverages patented Variable Inclination Continuous Transverse Stub (VICTS) technology combined with vacuum electronics to deliver...
Samsung Officially Brings Refurbished Phones with Warranty to India
Samsung India has introduced the Certified Re‑Newed program, offering refurbished Galaxy smartphones with a one‑year manufacturer warranty. Prices start around $280 for the Galaxy A36 5G and go up to $1,175 for the flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra 5G, a modest...
Senasic Clears HKEX Hearing as CATL-Backed Chip Platform Eyes IPO
Senasic Electronics Technology cleared its Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing hearing and is moving toward an IPO, backed by joint sponsors CICC and Guotai Haitong. The company, the world’s third‑largest automotive wireless sensing SoC maker and China’s largest, counts CATL...
Robinson Unmanned Supports U.S. Marine Corps MARV-EL Program with Sikorsky
Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky has secured a $15.5 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps for the Medium Aerial Resupply Vehicle‑Expeditionary Logistics (MARV‑EL) Increment 2 program, centered on the R66 TURBINETRUCK autonomous cargo helicopter developed with Robinson Unmanned. The R66 combines Sikorsky’s MATRIX...
The AI Energy Crisis Is Bad. Wait Until Quantum Arrives
Europe is set to launch Magne, a quantum computer built by Microsoft and Atom Computing in Denmark, backed by €80 million (≈$87 million) from the Novo Nordisk Foundation and EIFO. The article warns that as quantum computers become commercially viable, their energy...
Solving Hard Problems in Soft Electronics
Camille Cunin, a recent MIT Materials Science PhD, created polymer‑metal “mille‑feuille” composites that enable soft, stretchable organic transistors for bioelectronic applications. Her work tackles the dual challenge of conducting electrons and ions in hydrated, flexible environments, a key hurdle for...
Archer Materials Strengthens Pathway to Wafer-Scale Quantum Device Manufacturing
Archer Materials (ASX: AXE) is shifting its graphene‑based quantum device program from laboratory prototypes to wafer‑scale production using standard semiconductor processes. The company remains on track to showcase a functional qubit before year‑end, marking a critical milestone in its development...
Deal of the Week: Share Photos From Anywhere With This Pocket-Size Satellite Communicator
Garmin has launched the inReach Messenger Plus, a pocket‑size satellite communicator that now supports photo and voice messages through a paired smartphone. The new model expands text capacity from 160 to 1,600 characters and adds a 4‑gram weight increase over...
Centered on "Flash Charge", Amap and BYD Form Strategic Partnership
Chinese navigation giant Amap and electric‑vehicle maker BYD have signed a strategic partnership centered on BYD’s Flash Charge China initiative. The agreement integrates BYD’s ultra‑fast charging stations into Amap’s app, providing real‑time location, availability and pricing data to more than...
Supercharging Local AI Development with RHEL on NVIDIA DGX Spark
Red Hat announced a development preview of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 running on NVIDIA’s DGX Spark workstation. The DGX Spark, built on the Grace Blackwell GPU architecture, offers up to 1 petaflop of compute and 128 GB of unified memory, enabling developers to train and test...
Red Hat Device Edge Now Available to Run on NVIDIA Jetson Orin
Red Hat announced the general availability of Red Hat Device Edge on NVIDIA’s Jetson Orin family, coinciding with the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.8. The offering delivers a pre‑built, bootable container image that combines RHEL’s enterprise‑grade security with...
590,000 Dummies Gave Trump a $100 Deposit for an American Made Phone. Guess What? No Phone
Nearly 600,000 Trump supporters placed $100 deposits for a promised gold‑trimmed smartphone, only to discover the device will never be produced. The Trump Mobile website clarified that a deposit does not create a contract, guarantee inventory, or assure delivery, effectively...
Chinese Chip Pioneer Calls for Focus on ‘Pragmatic Breakthroughs’ over Chasing 2nm Hype
Richard Chang Rugin, the founder of SMIC and veteran of Texas Instruments, warned China’s semiconductor sector against fixating on 2‑nm and 3‑nm hype. He urged a shift toward mature‑node and specialty processes, which account for more than 80% of global...
AI Computing Surge Reshapes PCB Material Landscape
AI‑driven computing upgrades are reshaping the printed circuit board (PCB) material market, pushing the global copper‑clad laminate (CCL) sector to exceed $21.5 billion in 2026 with a 34.2% annual growth rate. Taiwanese manufacturers now command 37.4% of the CCL market, led...
5 Steps to Align Your Physical Fab Infrastructure with AI Yield Models
The article presents five practical steps to synchronize semiconductor fab infrastructure with AI yield models, starting with a contamination‑controlled baseline and ISO 14644‑5 compliance. It highlights how outgassing, fastener stress, and HVAC‑induced vibrations create phantom defects that confuse AI algorithms. Deploying...
PSC Bridges-2 Helps Train AI to Predict and Explain Airport Collision Risks
At the NASA Formal Methods Symposium, CMU’s AirLab announced World2Rules, a neuro‑symbolic AI trained on PSC’s Bridges‑2 supercomputer to predict and explain airport surface collision risks. The system ingests the 10‑TB Amelia‑42 dataset—two years of FAA movement records from 42...
The Sideload 033: You (Probably) Can’t Buy the Best Smartphone Cameras
Episode 33 of 9to5Google’s Sideload podcast features Phandroid editor Nick Gray discussing Oppo’s Find X9 Ultra and Vivo’s X300 Ultra. The two phones deliver flagship‑level camera performance—200 MP sensor, large aperture, dual‑pixel autofocus, and per‑pixel HDR—yet are not sold in the United States. Gray...
Latest Google Home Update Speeds up Gemini, ‘Ask Home’ Now Works with Voice Commands
Google rolled out a new Google Home update that accelerates Gemini’s voice processing, making timers and alarms noticeably quicker. The update extends Gemini’s “Ask Home” feature to voice commands, letting users ask contextual questions like the location of a family...
Apple's Next Vision Pro Headset Is Reportedly Years Away
Apple’s next Vision Pro headset is unlikely to appear until at least 2028, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company will keep supporting the current model while it shifts R&D toward an AI‑powered pendant, camera‑enabled AirPods, and eventually standalone AR glasses....
Data Centers Will Surge
Data center construction is set to surge in North America through 2026, even as broader AEC demand softens. Industry research from AGC shows data centers and power facilities remain growth pockets, prompting firms like Clayco and Deep Atomic to explore...
Can Hackers Break Encrypted USB Drives? I Tried to Find Out
The Kingston IronKey Locker+50 G2 is a hardware‑encrypted USB flash drive that protects data with a dedicated encryption chip. It uses 256‑bit AES‑XTS and wipes its keys after ten failed password attempts, ensuring data is unrecoverable. The drive includes an on‑screen...
Customers Offer to Buy Manufacturing Equipment for Memory Makers
Customers of SK Hynix are proposing to finance the purchase of advanced ASML EUV lithography equipment or dedicated memory production lines to secure supply amid a system memory shortage. Hynix is evaluating the offers but worries about becoming beholden to...
FDA Clears High-Pressure Balloon Catheter for BAV Procedures
Corvention, an Arizona‑based medtech startup, received FDA clearance for its KardiaPSI high‑pressure balloon catheter used in balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV). The device is engineered to retain its diameter under extreme pressures, delivering precise focal force in heavily calcified aortic valves....
Logitech's Rumored Folding Mouse Is Like a Little Flip Phone
Logitech is reportedly developing a folding mouse that folds in half like a flip phone, according to images posted on a German tech site. The ultracompact device features adaptive touch scrolling, Bluetooth connectivity, and an ambidextrous design, positioning it between...
Space Force to Overhaul Key Early Warning, Surveillance Radars Around the World
The U.S. Space Force announced a Ground Based Radar Digitization (GBRD) effort to modernize eight legacy missile‑warning and space‑surveillance radars worldwide, converting them from analog to digital. The upgrade will replace front‑end antennas, back‑end processors and software across sites in...
HPE Memory Server Targets Compute-Heavy and Agentic AI Workloads
HPE announced the Compute Scale‑up Server 3250, a memory‑centric platform built on the Superdome Flex architecture and powered by Intel Xeon 6 processors. The system scales from four to 16 sockets and can hold up to 64 TB of DDR5 RAM, targeting compute‑heavy workloads,...
First Real-Time Brain-Controlled Hearing Device
Columbia University researchers have built the first real‑time brain‑controlled hearing prototype that can isolate a single voice in a noisy setting. By decoding intracranial EEG signals, the system identifies which speaker a listener is attending to and automatically amplifies that...
APEC 2026 Multimedia Highlights: Bidirectional GaN, Multichip Modules, and Mini Regulators
Renesas showcased a 500‑W single‑stage solar micro‑inverter built around its new 650‑V bidirectional GaN switch, promising higher efficiency and simpler topology. Texas Instruments introduced IsoShield‑based isolated power modules that claim three‑times the power density of traditional discrete solutions. Ferric presented...
After 9 Months, We’re Absolutely Sure the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Is the Best Phone You Can Buy Right Now
Stefan Vazharov’s nine‑month hands‑on review concludes the iPhone 17 Pro Max, starting at $1,199, remains the best smartphone on the market. Counterpoint data shows it was the top‑selling iPhone model in 2025, and its A19 Pro processor, triple 48‑MP camera system and two‑day battery...
The Battle for Your Finger Heats up as RingConn Gen 3 Opens Preorders
RingConn has launched pre‑orders for its third‑generation smart ring, priced at $314 until May 28 before climbing to $349. The Gen 3 adds long‑term vascular health tracking, haptic vibration alerts, and an 11‑14‑day battery life, while retaining full‑day metrics like heart rate,...
Webinar to Demystify Biometric Physical Access Control Decisions
Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence are hosting a free webinar on May 19 to dissect the latest trends in biometric physical access control, featuring a new market report that forecasts the sector surpassing $9.8 billion by 2028. The event will showcase...
PCI Group Begins Work on New Spec to Support Bandwidth-Hungry Apps Like AI, HPC
PCI‑SIG has released the first draft of the PCIe 8.0 specification, targeting a 256 GT/s per‑lane rate and up to 1 TB/s bidirectional bandwidth in a 16‑lane configuration. The new standard, slated for final release in 2028, builds on PAM4 signaling and adds...
Infineon Expands XHP 2 CoolSiC MOSFET Power Module Portfolio
Infineon Technologies has added four new 2300 V CoolSiC MOSFET power modules to its XHP 2 portfolio, targeting high‑voltage renewable‑energy converters. The devices handle DC‑link voltages up to 1500 V, offer on‑resistance between 1 mΩ and 2 mΩ, and feature 4 kV or 6 kV isolation. Leveraging...