Headlines
Background
Trumpf plasma generator business redirects to semiconductor production
Trumpf is betting on the growing demand for advanced plasma generators in semiconductor manufacturing. The German company is moving series production to Poland to cut costs, while concentrating R&D and new product development in Freiburg. Its EUV customer ASML will also benefit from the move.
Opinion
Machines that think: agents in the enterprise
This is the eleventh part in a series on how AI is crossing out of software and into the physical world. This time, Jan Bosch looks at when software stops answering and starts acting.
News
Musk reportedly open to TSMC running Terafab
With an “insanely fast” production schedule to meet, Musk is reportedly softening on who should be in charge.
Background
“Hybrid bonding requires more than a highly accurate machine”
Even silicon starts behaving like rubber on a microscopic level. As hybrid bonding moves toward pitches of 1 micrometer and below, tiny deformations become a major obstacle. Research by Besi and Imec shows why mastering the process is just as important as building a highly accurate bonding machine.
Analysis
The great DRAM divide: different paths to denser memory
The world’s leading DRAM manufacturers are taking different approaches to the next generation of memory technology.
Background
“The best solution is often found at the intersection of different disciplines”
In high-tech systems development, a decision made within one discipline can have consequences throughout the entire system. Electronics architect Newton Fonseca encounters this throughout his work at VDL ETG Technology & Development. He found the same system-level perspective running through three High Tech Institute courses, from broad mechatronic design to the more specialized field of actuation.
Background
Reaching your audience’s head, heart and hands
Many people give presentations without knowing why. What do you want to achieve with your talk? When is your presentation a success?
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Events
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Analysis
Intel’s quantum computing push builds on Delft research
Qutech played a key role in taking silicon spin-qubit technology from lab to fab.
Analysis
Bad news for Besi: ASML is getting into hybrid bonding
Semianalysis identifies ASML as the biggest threat to Besi’s largest growth market, hybrid bonding. Most strikingly, the Duiven-based company felt compelled to respond to the analysis with a statement about its alleged competitor.
Background
Beyond tin: Three challengers take aim at EUV’s light source
Three US companies are developing accelerator-based alternatives to the tin-plasma source at the heart of ASML’s EUV scanners. They promise more usable power, cleaner and more controllable light and ultimately the freedom to move beyond today’s 13.5-nanometer wavelength.
Background
45 years after the I²C patent: the story behind the two wires
On 22 October 1981, Philips filed a European patent application for a communication system between integrated circuits that would later become known worldwide as the I²C bus. Forty-five years later, the basic principle is still going strong. Two lines, one for data and one for the clock, continue to connect countless chips in embedded systems, consumer electronics, cars and industrial applications.
News
Besi sees increasing momentum for hybrid bonding
CEO Richard Blickman seeks to allay fears of a slowdown in his firm’s primary growth market.
Background
Here’s why systems architects love product managers with no blah blah
What do you need a product manager for? Can’t AI do that? Xaviera Reynhout from Koers&Koffie tells you why at the Bits&Chips Event 2026.
Interview
“I’ll be honest: We’re in the death zone”
3D chip systems create formidable opportunities for Europe and the Netherlands, believes Hamed Sadeghian, CEO of Nearfield Instruments. He sees new business models emerging in the production of silicon systems and equipment. Seizing those opportunities will require courage, however, as well as a willingness to collaborate.