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Learning-by-doing is an important concept in economics as it is one of the main driving forces of economic progress. However, corporate learning is a slow process, so outsourcing manufacturing can override the long-term benefits of accumulating productivity knowledge. Semiconductor industry is also strongly featured by the learning effect, however, due to high capital requirements of building fabs, there are companies that fully outsource, while others try to keep production in-house. The chosen business model now gets further importance due to bottlenecks and supply issues perceived in the industry since the COVID-19 outbreak. Accordingly, we model the make-or-buy decision problem of a firm that decides on the optimal mix of outsourcing and in-house production, considering productivity gain via learning-by-doing and the economic impact of resilience. By presenting numerical simulations, we aim to capture the pre-pandemic and the current state of the semiconductor industry. Our model highlights that tendencies of being fabless were reasonable in the past. Although recent industry conditions have made in-house production more beneficial, this optimal strategy may be fragile due to changes of relative production costs or the extent of economic impact of chip shortages, which may underline the relevance of government incentives aiming to revitalise semiconductor industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the integrated circuit industry, heat is transferred through the contact between wafers and the chemical vapor deposited (CVD) 3C–SiC wafer susceptor. Understanding the out-plane thermal conductivity of CVD 3C–SiC is crucial in this context. The influence of grain size and grain boundary characteristics on out-plane thermal conductivity for <111>-oriented CVD 3C–SiC was discussed in this study. The out-plane thermal conductivity sharply decreases from 146.4 W/m⸱K to 122.3 W/m⸱K when the grain size approaches 11.04 μm. This paper suggests that the significant accumulation of dislocations at high-angle grain boundaries is the primary cause of this phenomenon. The substantial lattice strain impedes phonon transfer between grain boundaries, reducing overall phonon mobility. These findings suggest that manipulating the grain boundary angle is an effective means to fine-tune heat transfer in <111>-oriented CVD 3C–SiC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the risk of local obstruction or rupture in the operation process of the industry chain, a Grey-GERT network model of industry chain risk transmission is constructed based on the effect of input resources of each link of the industry chain, and the key links and their degree of risk in the process of industry chain network value transmission are identified and analysed to reveal the risk transmission mechanism of the industry chain. Finally, an empirical study is conducted on China's integrated circuit industry chain to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model and to propose targeted control measures for the key links and their value transmission risks. The results show that the proposed model can effectively solve the problem of incomplete information on multiple transmission parameters in industry chain network activities, thoroughly analyse the risk transmission mechanism of the industry chain, and provide theoretical support for strengthening the risk control of the industry chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study aims to analyze how the characteristics of intellectual capital (IC) facilitate green entrepreneurship development in the context of ecology, environment and sustainability. Specifically, the evolution of IC and green entrepreneurship was explored through a systematic review, including the relationships and interactions between human, structural and relational capital and green entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach: Meticulously combing the Web of Science Core Collection, the researcher conducted a bibliometric analysis of 800 English-language articles from 2002 to 2023. Employing co-word analysis and visualization, the literature on IC and green entrepreneurship was synthesized and systematized, exploring core topics, knowledge architectures and their evolutionary trajectories. Findings: The IC elements such as human, structural and relational capital interact with green entrepreneurship; IC enhances the innovation and competitiveness of green entrepreneurship, while green entrepreneurship orientation influences the accumulation and reshaping of IC. The flow of IC impacts the establishment of green start-ups and the emergence of green industries, promoting sustainable growth. Originality/value: The dynamic interplay between IC and green entrepreneurship is marked by intricate relationships and diverse attributes. Currently, no comprehensive theoretical model has been established to address the complexities intrinsic to this study. The evidence suggests that the green entrepreneurial orientation influences corporate initiatives to bolster human and structural capital, with structural capital serving as both a constraint and catalyst for human capital. The paper presents an embryonic framework of IC for green entrepreneurship, highlighting its critical role in the aggregation and reconfiguration of IC or venture creation and industry evolution. This contributes to a more profound understanding of IC in entrepreneurial contexts, providing a basis for future research and practical strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The improvement of innovation performance is critical to the high-quality development of the integrated circuit industry. Regional innovation cannot be delivered and sustained without the help of governments. This paper uses negative binomial regression to investigate the quadratic relationship between policy intensity and innovation performance in the integrated circuit industry at the city level and reveals how network centrality moderates this relationship. The results are given as follows. First, policy intensity exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation performance. Second, after network centrality is introduced, the relationship between policy intensity and innovation performance shows a shape-flip from inverted U-shaped in low network centrality to U-shaped in high network centrality. Third, compared with exploitative innovation performance, exploratory innovation performance is more sensitive to policy intensity and needs higher network centrality to change the link from an inverted U-shaped to a U-shaped relationship. This research reveals the importance of incorporating cooperation into the interactive framework between policy and innovation, which provides guidance for fostering innovation in the global integrated circuit industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐purity octafluoropropane (C3F8) electronic specialty gas is a key chemical raw material in semiconductor and integrated circuit manufacturing industry, while selective removal of hexafluoropropylene (C3F6) impurity for C3F8 purification is essential but a challenging task. Here we report a fluorinated cage‐like MOF Zn‐bzc‐CF3 (bzc=5‐(trifluoromethyl)‐1H‐pyrazole‐4‐carboxylic acid) for C3F6/C3F8 separation. The incorporation of −CF3 groups not only provides suitable pore aperture size for highly efficient size‐exclusive C3F6/C3F8 separation, but also creates hydrophobic microenvironments, endowing Zn‐bz‐CF3 high chemical stability. Remarkably, Zn‐bzc‐CF3 exhibits high C3F6 adsorption capacity while excluding C3F8, achieving ideal molecular‐sieving C3F6/C3F8 separation. Breakthrough experiments show that Zn‐bzc‐CF3 can efficiently separate C3F6/C3F8 mixture and high‐purity C3F8 (99.9 %) can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new approach to design and model shop floor control techniques for wafer fabs in the very large-scale integrated circuit manufacturing industry. The new model suggests the scheduling system should be selected by considering the type of work centres – whether they are sequential or batch – and the relevance of set-up times and capacity utilisation rate. The proposed scheduling model has been tested via a simulation model of the existing system, and by using data coming from the field, which leads to consider real-life performance to be close to the output of the simulation campaign. The main results point out that the performance of batch work centres – even though they represent a reduced portion of the whole set of work centres – can remarkably affect the performance of the whole fab. In addition, relevant improvements in term of throughput rate and capital productivity can be obtained also at the shop floor level via slack-based dispatching procedures. Results are particularly appealing because they can be implemented in a very short period and without significant infrastructural investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, more than ever, our world is facing supply chain constraints that threaten the basics of current market dynamic on all levels and in every economic field. From economic sanctions limiting commercial trade, the COVID-19 crisis, post-pandemic economic stagnation, the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine, the global chip shortage, as well as the effects of the current Israeli- Palestinian war and its impact on freight transportation in the Red Sea have all exposed the vulnerability of today's global supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to review how supply chain must be designed to ensure their flow and deliverables in complex, uncertain, and everchanging environment. The paper will study how supply chains must be resilient by addressing current challenges through agility to meet both socio-economic and political volatilities, and sustainable through their transition to socio-ecological compliant economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of integrated circuits (IC) is key to the development of the world economy. The system of intellectual property offers different means of protection for the products of the IC industry. Those are mainly the patents for inventions, registration of topologies of ICs, trade secrets, copyright. The economics of the IC industry in the late 20th century moves different processes in different regions of the world. This economic reality provides an opportunity for those companies to invest heavily in R&D, to create valuable intellectual property and to develop a competitive advantage. The historical development of integrated circuit manufacturing, the development of the main companies involved in the sector and the existing supply chains, raise a number of questions that are related to the concentration of innovation and intellectual property, the potential problems for global supply and economic development, as well as the steps towards overcoming those problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) surface tiny defect detection is a difficult task in the integrated circuit industry, especially since the detection of tiny defects on PCB boards with large-size complex circuits has become one of the bottlenecks. To improve the performance of PCB surface tiny defects detection, a PCB tiny defects detection model based on an improved attention residual network (YOLOX-AttResNet) is proposed. First, the unsupervised clustering performance of the K-means algorithm is exploited to optimize the channel weights for subsequent operations by feeding the feature mapping into the SENet (Squeeze and Excitation Network) attention network; then the improved K-means-SENet network is fused with the directly mapped edges of the traditional ResNet network to form an augmented residual network (AttResNet); and finally, the AttResNet module is substituted for the traditional ResNet structure in the backbone feature extraction network of mainstream excellent detection models, thus improving the ability to extract small features from the backbone of the target detection network. The results of ablation experiments on a PCB surface defect dataset show that AttResNet is a reliable and efficient module. In Torify the performance of AttResNet for detecting small defects in large-size complex circuit images, a series of comparison experiments are further performed. The results show that the AttResNet module combines well with the five best existing target detection frameworks (YOLOv3, YOLOX, Faster R-CNN, TDD-Net, Cascade R-CNN), and all the combined new models have improved detection accuracy compared to the original model, which suggests that the AttResNet module proposed in this paper can help the detection model to extract target features. Among them, the YOLOX-AttResNet model proposed in this paper performs the best, with the highest accuracy of 98.45% and the detection speed of 36 FPS (Frames Per Second),which meets the accuracy and real-time requirements for the detection of tiny defects on PCB surfaces. This study can provide some new ideas for other real-time online detection tasks of tiny targets with high-resolution images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fluorine-containing main-chain benzoxazine (BAF-M-TB) was co-cured with biphenyl epoxy for the integrated circuit industry. The benzoxazine precursor was synthesized using 4,4′-(Hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphenol (bisphenol AF), 2,2′-Dimethyl-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4,4′-Diamine(M-TB), and paraformaldehyde. In addition, the 3,3′-(Oxybis(4,1-phenylene))bis(3,4-dihydro-2H-benzo[e][1,3]oxazine) (Benoxazine ODA-BOZ), which is a commercialized benzoxazine, was co-cured with biphenyl epoxy as a control. The two co-curing systems were referred to as EP/BAF-M-TB and EP/ODA-BOZ. The curing kinetics, rheological behavior, and thermal stability of the two co-curing systems were studied. Poly-EP/BAF-M-TB and poly-EP/ODA-BOZ quartz fiber cloth reinforced composites (QFRPs) were prepared using the prepreg laminating method in order to determine their mechanical, thermal, and dielectric properties. Both of them showed good thermal properties and dielectric properties. The dielectric constant of poly-EP/BAF-M-TB QFRP is in the range of 3.25–3.54 at the low frequency of 10 kHz–10 MHz. At the high frequency of 5 GHz, its dielectric constant is 3.16, which is better than that of poly-EP/ODA-BOZ QFRP. Additionally, the Td5 of poly-EP/BAF-M-TB was 398 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere, which is higher than that of poly-EP/ODA-BOZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital integrated circuit (IC) testing model module is applied in this study to simulate the fabrication and testing of integrated circuits. The yield and quality of ICs are analyzed by assuming that the wafer devices under test conditions are normal probability distributions. The difficulties of testing and verification become increasingly great as the design function of the chip becomes remarkably complex. Conversely, the automotive industry chip supply chain has been substantially affected since the COVID-19 outbreak. The shortage of chips in the auto-market has always existed; therefore, increasing available chips under a limited production capacity has become a top priority. Therefore, this study applies the digital integrated circuit testing model (DITM) and proposes a retest plan. This method does not require considerable time to collect large wafer data, nor does it require additional hardware equipment. Furthermore, the required test quality parameters are set, and the test is repeated on the device by adjusting the test guardband (TGB). Moreover, three retesting schemes are proposed to improve the IC test quality (Yq) and test yield (Yt) to meet the requirements of consumers for product quality. A set of 2021 IEEE International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS) parameters is used to demonstrate the three proposed retesting schemes. The simulation results from the 2021 IRDS data prove that the retest method can effectively improve the test yield (Yt). A comparison of the estimated results of the three retest methods shows that using the repeat test method can maximize the test yield without sacrificing the test quality (Yq). By contrast, repeat testing can indeed improve the test yield (Yt) by 14% or more. Moreover, the increase in sellable ICs not only increases additional earnings for corporations, but also alleviates the current global shortage of automotive ICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of chip shortages on the financial leverage of automobile firms worldwide over the period COVID‐19 using a panel vector autoregression analysis. This paper analyzes the chip crisis as an exogenous shock in a highly heterogeneous and dynamic framework for automobile firms during the pandemic period. The findings show that the chip shortage has a negative effect on financial leverage of automobile firms and increases their internal financing needs during the pandemic. This study adds new insights to the current literature by considering the chip crisis to the corporate dynamics of automobile firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the growing demand for ultra-high-density integrated circuits in the integrated circuit industry, flip-chip bonding (FCB) has become the mainstream solution for chip interconnection. In flip-chip bonding (FCB), however, alloy solder is no longer adequate to meet the high heat dissipation demands of high-power devices with over 100 kW/cm2 in power density due to its low reflow temperature. Nano-silver solder, on the other hand, exhibits superior thermal and electrical conductivity, making it an excellent alternative to traditional solder for FCB. This study explored nano-silver's thermal reliability and electrical performance as a solder material. The following results were obtained through temperature cycle (with temperatures ranging from −55 to 150 °C) and high-temperature storage experiments (with applied temperatures of over 170 °C). The results indicate that as the duration of the high-temperature storage increased, the grain continued to coarsen, resulting in an average pore size transition from 0.004 to 0.072 μm2. A strong correlation coefficient of 0.9913 was observed between the duration of high-temperature exposure and the porosity within the time range of 0–200 h. Following the reliability test, the shear strength of the nano-silver interconnect samples showed varying degrees of decrease. The bonding effect with the nano-silver layer can be enhanced, and the thermal reliability can be improved by depositing Ni/Ag on the surface of Cu, making it less prone to cracking. Regarding the electrical performance, the square resistance of the nano-silver interconnect structures increased by 35% after the reliability test. This indicates a significant degradation in the electrical reliability of nano-silver interconnects under temperature stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze factors based on organizational knowledge management (KM; transactional memory systems and knowledge-oriented leadership [K-OL]) that help firms to mitigate conflicts based on task management at work, with the aim to improve their innovation capabilities (IC). The knowledge-based view of the firm, conflict management theory and cognitive collective engagement theory have been used to build a model of relationships that connects the development of positive KM contexts and management of dysfunctional conflict with IC improvement. Design/methodology/approach: Data survey collected from inland hotel establishments in Spain is used to test seven hypotheses by means of structural equations modeling, applying the partial least squares technique. Direct, indirect and mediating relationships between variables are examined from the structural path model. Findings: The results confirm that, as expected, IC improve when K-OL and transactive memory systems (TMSs) are properly implemented by hotel establishments, which leads them to reduce negative effects of task management conflict (TMC). Significant direct effects are found between the key variables of the study and also a significant indirect effect between K-OL and IC through TMS reinforcement and the mitigation of TMC. Practical implications: This paper provides useful ideas for hotel managers about how to improve KM contexts in their establishments while avoiding TMC. Efforts devoted to creating those contexts by hotel establishments are shown to be effective to improve their IC and create competitive advantages. Originality/value: The analysis of IC improvement by studying TMC mitigation had not been researched to date by the KM literature. The consideration and testing of a model that integrates KM-related tools such as K-OL and TMS to avoid TMC in the hotel industry is the main contribution of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates the application of Computer Vision to the problem of the automated counting and measuring of crabs and lobsters onboard fishing boats. The aim is to provide catch count and measurement data for these key commercial crustacean species. This can provide vital input data for stock assessment models, to enable the sustainable management of these species. The hardware system is required to be low-cost, have low-power usage, be waterproof, available (given current chip shortages), and able to avoid over-heating. The selected hardware is based on a Raspberry Pi 3A+ contained in a custom waterproof housing. This hardware places challenging limitations on the options for processing the incoming video, with many popular deep learning frameworks (even light-weight versions) unable to load or run given the limited computational resources. The problem can be broken into several steps: (1) Identifying the portions of the video that contain each individual animal; (2) Selecting a set of representative frames for each animal, e.g, lobsters must be viewed from the top and underside; (3) Detecting the animal within the frame so that the image can be cropped to the region of interest; (4) Detecting keypoints on each animal; and (5) Inferring measurements from the keypoint data. In this work, we develop a pipeline that addresses these steps, including a key novel solution to frame selection in video streams that uses classification, temporal segmentation, smoothing techniques and frame quality estimation. The developed pipeline is able to operate on the target low-power hardware and the experiments show that, given sufficient training data, reasonable performance is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a political economy framework for strategic supply chain decisions by identifying lessons from the global chip shortage. Design/methodology/approach: Global supply chains have been viewed as holistic political economies because each supply chain is more important than the individual buyer–supplier relationships that comprise it. Findings: Each supply chain is a combination of many different vendor–supplier relationships that seem independent but are actually dependent on one another. Originality/value: With significant geopolitical shifts, it has become necessary holistically consider the cultural, sociopolitical and economic conditions that surround supply chains. This points attention to managing the entire supply chain, rather than the immediate buyer–supplier relationship at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the crucial dimension (CD) of logic circuits continues to shrink, the photoresist metrics, including resolution, line edge roughness, and sensitivity, are faced with significant challenges. Photoresists are indispensable in the integrated circuit manufacturing industry, and specifically in achieving smaller critical dimensions. In this study, the effects of two categories of photosensitive compounds on lithography performance are explored, through a series of sulfonium salt‐based photoacid generators (PAGs) with diverse reactivity and photodegradable nucleophiles (PDNs) with varying nucleophilicity. The detailed characterization and exposure experiments suggest that the reactive alterations of different PAGs are mostly associated with the amount of phenyl composed of cations in PAGs. The "PDN first, PAG second" strategy, which employs a combination of low reactivity PAG and high reactivity PDN and involves PDN decomposition first and PAG decomposition second in the electron beam lithography process, achieves high sensitivity (100–270 µC cm−2), high resolution (25 nm 1:1 line/space, L/S), and low line edge roughness (LER ≤ 3.3 nm) stripes. This approach outperforms conventional formulations and may provide a potentially effective and useful strategy to improve electron beam photoresists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the core carrier of information storage, a semiconductor memory device is a basic product with a large volume that is widespread in the integrated circuit industry. With the rapid development of semiconductor manufacturing processes and materials, the internal structure of memory has gradually shifted from a 2D planar packaging structure to a 3D packaging structure to meet industry demands for high-frequency, high-speed, and large-capacity devices with low power consumption. However, advanced 3D packaging technology can pose some reliability risks, making devices prone to failure, especially when used in harsh environmental conditions, including temperature changes, high temperature and humidity levels, and mechanical stress. In this paper, the authors introduce the typical structure characteristics of 3D packaged memory; analyze the reasons for device failure caused by stress; summarize current research methods that utilize temperature, mechanical and hygrothermal theories, and failure models; and present future challenges and directions regarding the reliability research of 3D packaged memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiconductor-grade monocrystalline silicon is the basic material for the integrated circuit industry and its quality determines the performance of chips. The distribution of oxygen content in Czochralski (Cz) silicon crystals has an important impact on the quality of silicon wafers. The oxygen content distribution during crystal growth can be effectively controlled by optimizing the heat shield structure of the furnace, but it is difficult to investigate the intrinsic mechanism through experiments. In this study, effect of the structure of heat shield on the distribution of oxygen content in 200 mm semiconductor-grade Cz monocrystalline silicon was investigated by ANSYS finite element analysis. Single-section and two-section heat shield structures are widely used in commercial furnace, by comparison, the distribution of temperature and flow fields, the temperature gradient at the solid-liquid interface and the radial oxygen content distribution for different stages of body growth (300, 800, 1 000 mm) were analyzed. The simulation results demonstrate that the temperature field uniformity of the single-section heat shield structure is better than that of the two-section heat shield structure, the temperature gradient at the solid-liquid interface in the former is smaller. Also, the low argon flow rate is favorale to the volatilization of SiO gas, and weakening the shear convection of the melt, leading to an inhibition of diffusion movement of oxygen from melt to crystal. Therefore, the radial oxygen content distribution at the solid-liquid interface is more uniform and the oxygen content in the crystal is lower under the condition of the single-section heat shield structure than that of the two-section heat shield structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the integrated circuit and chip industry, electronic products and their components are becoming increasingly miniaturized, high-frequency, and low-loss. These demand higher requirements for the dielectric properties and other aspects of epoxy resins to develop a novel epoxy resin system that meets the needs of current development. This paper employs ethyl phenylacetate cured dicyclopentadiene phenol (DCPD) epoxy resin as the matrix and incorporates KH550 coupling-agent-treated SiO2 hollow glass microspheres to produce composite materials with low dielectric, high heat resistance, and high modulus. These materials are applied as insulation films for high density interconnect (HDI) and substrate-like printed circuit board (SLP) boards. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) technique was used to characterize the reaction between the coupling agent and HGM, as well as the curing reaction between the epoxy resin and ethyl phenylacetate. The curing process of the DCPD epoxy resin system was determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The various properties of the composite material with different HGM contents were tested, and the mechanism of the impact of HGM on the properties of the composite material was discussed. The results indicate that the prepared epoxy resin composite material exhibits good comprehensive performance when the HGM content is 10 wt.%. The dielectric constant at 10 MHz is 2.39, with a dielectric loss of 0.018. The thermal conductivity is 0.1872 Wm−1 k−1, the coefficient of thermal expansion is 64.31 ppm/K, the glass transition temperature is 172 °C, and the elastic modulus is 1221.13 MPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a transparent thermoelectric oxide, gallium‐doped zinc oxide (GZO) has the potential to power wearable or portable electronics and may be used in the integrated circuits industry for chip cooling. Constructing ZnO–GZO interfaces has been proposed as an effective strategy for improving thermoelectric performance of GZO thin films. However, without the aid of band structure calculation for multilayered films, it is hard to directly elucidate the underlying mechanisms of carrier transport. Weighted mobility is an indicator that reveals the inherent electronic transport properties like carrier scattering, electronic band structure, and so on. Thus, to further investigate the effects of ZnO–GZO interfaces on electrical properties of GZO thin films, the structures containing different numbers of ZnO–GZO interfaces were designed and the correlations among numbers of ZnO–GZO interfaces, weighted mobility, and electrical properties were explored. It was found that with more ZnO–GZO interfaces, the weighted mobility increased, and the power factor values also improved as well. Consequently, an enhanced power factor value reached 439 μW m−1 K−2 at 623 K. This work demonstrated the beneficial effects of multiple interfaces on the improvements of electrical transport performance through analyzing weighted mobility, which laid a foundation for further optimization of thermoelectric performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing demand for computing power and downscaling is reaching the limits of the current lithographic methods, further precluding the shrinkage of the silicon chips using state‐of‐the‐art top‐down approaches. Moreover, the current chip shortage exposes the excessive world dependence on silicon, stressing the need for silicon‐free computing technologies, preferably operating at the molecular level. Here, a Eu3+/Tb3+ co‐doped organic‐inorganic di‐ureasil hybrid is used to demonstrate an illustrative example of an all‐photonic device based on the emission temporal dynamics of the Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions. An all‐photonic approach for temperature‐reprogrammable change from a low‐pass filter to a high‐pass filter is reported, showing a firm step toward the design and development of molecular analogs of conventional circuit electrical passive components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Bumpless Cu/SiO2 hybrid bonding, which this paper aims to, is a key technology of three-dimensional (3D) high-density integration to promote the integrated circuits industry's continuous development, which achieves the stacks of chips vertically connected via through-silicon via. Surface-activated bonding (SAB) and thermal-compression bonding (TCB) are used, but both have some shortcomings. The SAB method is overdemanding in the bonding environment, and the TCB method requires a high temperature to remove copper oxide from surfaces, which increases the thermal budget and grossly damages the fine-pitch device. Design/methodology/approach: In this review, methods to prevent and remove copper oxidation in the whole bonding process for a lower bonding temperature, such as wet treatment, plasma surface activation, nanotwinned copper and the metal passivation layer, are investigated. Findings: The cooperative bonding method combining wet treatment and plasma activation shows outstanding technological superiority without the high cost and additional necessity of copper passivation in manufacture. Cu/SiO2 hybrid bonding has great potential to effectively enhance the integration density in future 3D packaging for artificial intelligence, the internet of things and other high-density chips. Originality/value: To achieve heterogeneous bonding at a lower temperature, the SAB method, chemical treatment and the plasma-assisted bonding method (based on TCB) are used, and surface-enhanced measurements such as nanotwinned copper and the metal passivation layer are also applied to prevent surface copper oxide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of global supply chains of many products. One area that requires improved supply chain resilience and that is of particular importance to electronic designers is the shortage of basic dual in-line package (DIP) electronic components commonly used for prototyping. This anecdotal observation was investigated as a case study of using additive manufacturing to enforce contact between premade, off-the-shelf conductors to allow for electrical continuity between two arbitrary points by examining data relating to the stock quantity of electronic components, extracted from Digi-Key Electronics. This study applies this concept using an open hardware approach for the design, testing, and use of a simple, parametric, 3-D printable invention that allows for small outline integrated circuit (SOIC) components to be used in DIP package circuits (i.e., breadboards, protoboards, etc.). The additive manufacture breakout board (AMBB) design was developed using two different open-source modelers, OpenSCAD and FreeCAD, to provide reliable and consistent electrical contact between the component and the rest of the circuit and was demonstrated with reusable 8-SOIC to DIP breakout adapters. The three-part design was optimized for manufacturing with RepRap-class fused filament 3-D printers, making the AMBB a prime candidate for use in distributed manufacturing models. The AMBB offers increased flexibility during circuit prototyping by allowing arbitrary connections between the component and prototyping interface as well as superior organization through the ability to color-code different component types. The cost of the AMBB is CAD $0.066/unit, which is a 94% saving compared to conventional PCB-based breakout boards. Use of the AMBB device can provide electronics designers with an increased selection of components for through-hole use by more than a factor of seven. Future development of AMBB devices to allow for low-cost conversion between arbitrary package types provides a path towards more accessible and inclusive electronics design as well as faster prototyping and technical innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Moiré fringe lithography alignment technology, alignment is realized by monitoring the grating interference fringe image in real-time. The technique exhibits excellent sensitivity to displacement changes and is not easily affected by the gap changes between the mask and silicon wafer. Therefore, this technique is widely used in conventional proximity and contact lithography and new-generation micro- and nanolithography systems. The rapid development of semiconductor and integrated circuit industries, as well as the increasing requirements for the resolution of various nanodevices and systems, have posed new challenges in Moiré fringe lithography alignment technology, which are mainly reflected in alignment accuracy, alignment range, and scheme complexity. In this study, the development history, alignment principle, and overall process of Moiré fringe lithography alignment technology are reviewed; the main factors affecting alignment accuracy are analyzed, and corresponding optimization schemes are provided; and finally, the development trend and research focus of Moiré fringe lithography alignment technology are predicted from the marking structure, alignment scheme, and algorithm processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study investigates the capital structure determinants of the Middle East tourism sector by examining intellectual capital (IC) efficiency and institutional governance along with firm-specific and macroeconomic variables. This research also identifies the determinants of capital structure for tourism companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and non-GCC countries. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 45 listed tourism companies of nine Middle Eastern countries over five years from 2014 to 2018. The data were analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and checked for robustness using the generalised methods of moment (GMM) estimation. Findings: Overall, the results indicate that tourism companies rely more on short-term debt (STD) than long-term debt (LTD), thus decreasing liquidity and increasing financial risk. Furthermore, tourism companies in non-GCC countries have higher IC efficiency compared to those in GCC countries. The aggregate institutional index is much higher for GCC countries compared to non-GCC countries. The OLS estimations suggest IC efficiency and institutional governance index provide inconclusive evidence as a determinant of capital structure proxy. High capital employed efficiency (CEE) is associated with more leverage for tourism firms. Theoretically, the results support pecking order and trade-off theories due to the relationships between firm-specific indicators and debt. Originality/value: This study closes the gap in the capital structure debate by providing valuable insights into IC efficiency and institutional governance. These two factors serve as capital structure determinants in the Middle East and the GCC and non-GCC regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents highlights of the International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis 2022 focused on chasing ever-smaller and elusive defects for yield improvement in semiconductor chips. It mentions that the symposium offered a unique forum for failure analysts to present innovative techniques and methods developed in the Failure Analysis community of an organized Women in Electronic Failure Analysis (WEFA) networking session.

Purpose: In the past decade, intellectual capital (IC) measurement and reporting have been feeding scientific debate; however, only few studies address these issues together. The present research aims to provide an integrated view of the topics covered by the existing literature and to highlight the emerging research trends and set the agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach: This study develops a structured literature review (SLR) of the extant research concerned with IC measurement and reporting, using a comprehensive sample of 1,021 articles extracted from the Scopus database. Findings: The findings of the SLR show that the existing literature focuses on seven research areas: IC and public sector; IC university and education; IC evaluation method; internal and external IC disclosure; IC and CSR; management of IC in organizations; other. Overall, findings indicate that IC measurement and reporting are highly researched topics that continue to attract the interests of scholars. Finally, the SLR analysis has allowed outlining a future research agenda, with particular reference to the IC evaluation method and internal and external IC disclosure research areas. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of this research lies in the manual screening of relevant studies, which entails some degree of subjectivity. Furthermore, another limitation research could be considered the use of a single database (Scopus). Originality/value: The present study brings potential contributions for scholars and practitioners. From a scholarly perspective, the paper provides a systematization of scientific contributions that have dealt with IC measurement and reporting. In particular, it contributes to the scholarly debate bringing into focus various IC measurement and reporting issues in the landscape of private and public organizations. Referring to practical implications, our research supports the strategic use of IC measurement and reporting as a key lever for improving the management of firms. Using an analytical framework that combines insights from the agency, stakeholder and legitimacy theories, this study highlights that IC reporting activity should be used strategically as a means to engage with all firm's stakeholders, in particular with a view to reducing information asymmetry and improving firm reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Aksaray University Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences / Aksaray Üniversitesi Iktisadi ve Idari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of Aksaray University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Elektronik Industrie is the property of Hüthig GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We present in situ calorimetry, thermal conductivity, and thermal diffusivity measurements of materials using temperature-sensing optical wireless integrated circuits (OWiCs). These microscopic and untethered optical sensors eliminate input wires and reduce parasitic effects. Each OWiC has a mass of ∼100 ng, a 100-μm-scale footprint, and a thermal response time of microseconds. We demonstrate that they can measure the thermal properties of nearly any material, from aerogels to metals, on samples as small as 100 ng and over thermal diffusivities covering four orders of magnitude. They also function over a broad temperature range, and we present proof-of-concept measurements of the thermodynamic phase transitions in both liquid crystal 5CB and gadolinium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of the integrated circuit industry, ferroelectric thin film materials and technologies have become increasingly important. Ferroelectric materials have been widely used in aerospace, information storage, artificial intelligence, microelectromechanical, wearable devices, and other fields. Traditional sports is an important carrier of traditional culture. It contains the sports cultural resources created and precipitated by the Chinese nation for thousands of years, and all sectors of society are also paying great attention to this. Under the background of the market economy system and the major premise of the vigorous development of the cultural industry and sports industry, industrialization is obviously the inevitable choice for traditional sports to break through the difficulties and seek development, and it will also promote the further inheritance and promotion of traditional sports. The complex combination causes its performance to decrease or even fail. Therefore, it cannot cause foresee losses and disasters. It has important application value and significance to master the performance changes and mechanisms of ferrous film materials under different adding environments. This paper takes ferroelectric Pb (Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3(PZT)Bi3.15Nd0.85Ti3O12(BNT) as the research object, proposes the preparation of sol coating for thin film materials, and studies the preparation parameters PZT of the sol electric ferroelectric method. Electrical method and BNT electrical film properties affect iron and physical experiments on the properties of iron. The influence of the best sol-iron coating method on the electrical properties of PZT and BNT films is the ferroelectric properties of the 700°C layer of high-temperature gas, 10-layer PZT films, and 8-layer BNT films. The elasticity and elastic moduli of PZT and BNT films are 66.8 MPa and 99.6 MPa and 159.3 GPa and 189GPa, respectively; the elastic coefficients of PZT and BNT films are 15.4 × 10 10 N/m2 and 18.4 × 10 10 N/m2, and their elastic coefficients e 31 decrease with accompanying increase in swallowing. And with the disease of reading and writing field strength, as the speed becomes faster and slower, the carriers have more time to move to the brain wall, so the intensity is also intuitive. It has strong practicability and feasibility to popularize the material and manufacture the equipment of the current sports equipment club. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RAN - Revista Academia & Negocios is the property of RAN - Revista Academia & Negocios, Universidad de Concepcion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines how a green relational view sustains competitive advantage via respective green exploratory and exploitative innovation. To clarify the conditions that support green relational view and which type of green innovation is overlooked, we differentiate between two types of green relational view (i.e., green relationship learning [GRL] and green relational capital [GRC]) to analyze how two types of green innovation (i.e., green exploratory innovation and green exploitative innovation) mediate the relationship between green relational view and competitive advantage (CA) in two distinct pathways. To analyze the proposal theoretical model, Taiwanese integrated circuit industry firms were sampled using hierarchical regression methodology. Our results show that both GRL and GRC support CA. Furthermore, the findings indicate that GRL more strongly influences green exploratory innovation, whereas GRC more strongly influences green exploitative innovation. Further analysis finds that green exploratory innovation partially mediates the linkage of GRL‐CA and green exploitative innovation fully mediates the linkage of GRC‐CA. These findings are valuable for both researchers and practitioners. We discuss implications and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]