13 Things I Heard at Semicon West
7/11/2014 09:00 AM EDT
Science experiments
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1323067&page_number=11
Cool new materials are still not ready for prime time
Borst said researchers at Albany are seeking ways of using conventional fab processes to grow graphene and transfer it to wafers as a new way to make chips when CMOS hits atomic limits. It is also experimenting with two approaches to making transistors with graphene.
Wong of Stanford pooh-poohed the effort. He said graphene lacks a bandgap, making it unsuitable for making transistors. He promoted carbon nanotubes in a snappy presentation that showed how they could create stacked devices that could effectively pack an IBM Watson system into an area the size of a smartphone.
Borst said CNTs are not compatible with CMOS processes. Wong admitted that and said they cannot survive today's high-temperature doping processes. Back to the lab with all of them.
It's a big world after all
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1323067&page_number=12
450mm wafers will be ready in 2018
The big wafers are expected to give chip makers a one-time per-chip cost reduction.
Three years between logic nodes
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?cid=NL%5FEET%5FEDT%5FEET%5Fdaily%5F20140715&_mc=NL%5FEET%5FEDT%5FEET%5Fdaily%5F20140715&elq=c82e36e0bb97411aac01cf8e3fdfbda2&elqCampaignId=18063&doc_id=1323067&page_number=2
Moore's Law has definitely slowed
The time between introducing logic products on a new process technology node is now three years, not two, said Bob Gleason who is part of the team that develops the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). He expects the slower pace to continue at least for the next three years.
Metcalfe on innovation
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1323067&page_number=7
Universities in research debate
The Ethernet inventor, who teaches about innovation at the University of Texas at Austin, made a pitch for collaboration among university professors, students, government funders, and industry experts as the best mix for innovation.
"We are deciding whether or not to use universities as our principal means of research."
