Automation may be responsible for the loss of many jobs, but it has been and is likely to remain more of a help than a threat to semiconductor failure analysts.

This column gives a broad picture of the technical issues facing the semiconductor industry and how they may affect microelectronics failure analysis. The three major trends addressed are (1) a shift to larger wafer sizes (450 mm); (2) the consolidation of manufacturing at the leading edge; and (3) strategies for dealing with the end of standard scaling (sometimes referred to as “More than Moore”).