If you were hoping for some form of revelation for Embracer Group’s slate of MMOs to come out of the company’s April-to-June investor report for 2024, you should probably temper your expectations, as most of what our readers care about appears to be dangled carrots for the investor board instead of hard plans. We’ll start […]

Vroom vroom. That is the sound of 11 rivals revving their engines as they blink the sweat out of their eyes and exhale years of self-doubt from their lungs. Today is their day. We have lined up these racing games on a starting grid and are interested to see how things shake out. Will the realism-obsessed driving sims take the lead with their sublime physics engines? Might the futuristic combat racers simply destroy the opposition with explosive rockets? Or perhaps a nippy arcade crowd-pleaser will soar to the finish line, propelled by the sound of roaring cheers. It's all to play for here at our incredibly messed-up grand prix with a worrying lack of rules or regulation. Start your engines, everyone, these are the 11 best racing games on PC. 3! 2! 1! ...

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Vroom vroom. That is the sound of 11 rivals revving their engines as they blink the sweat out of their eyes and exhale years of self-doubt from their lungs. Today is their day. We have lined up these racing games on a starting grid and are interested to see how things shake out. Will the realism-obsessed driving sims take the lead with their sublime physics engines? Might the futuristic combat racers simply destroy the opposition with explosive rockets? Or perhaps a nippy arcade crowd-pleaser will soar to the finish line, propelled by the sound of roaring cheers. It's all to play for here at our incredibly messed-up grand prix with a worrying lack of rules or regulation. Start your engines, everyone, these are the 11 best racing games on PC. 3! 2! 1! ...

Read more

There's no doubting that Acer are very well versed in gaming laptops, and the Predator Helios Neo 16 looks to be another fine addition to their portfolio. In a market where desktop graphics cards are still quite unstable in price and availability, laptops have become a stronger alternative than ever.

With the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16, there is plenty to be in awe of but also one major concern that I can't help but overlook given my experience with previous Predator models.

For now, let me take you through my experience with the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 and why I'm convinced that this laptop line might be the most well rounded in the world of portable gaming today.

Acer have been on a tear lately, producing some of the best laptops on the market and really starting the process of shedding their association with being a budget laptop specialist. The Acer Swift Go 14 is just another stellar release that is easily one of the best production-focused laptops I've ever used.

When it comes to being focused on work and allowing me to stay on task, the Acer Swift Go 14 is the perfect laptop. It may seem odd to praise a laptop of offering no overbearing features or design choices, but sometimes all you need is simplicity.

 Looking for an updated list? You'll find the latest Best Gaming Laptops on PCGamesN.

What are the best laptops you can buy in 2023? Well, it's not the easiest question to answer because it will always come down to what your own needs are and the budget that you have to spend.

Fear not, as we at Gear Nuke are here to help you break through the jargon and find the best laptop that will suit your situation perfectly, even if you're on a tight budget. We've assessed a number of laptops and picked out the best based on a number of criteria.

Battery life, display, RAM, processing power, we've considered it all and more with the aim of finding the best laptop just for you. Need something for your college work, gaming, or video editing or do you just need it to run Netflix? We've got you covered.

MORE FROM GEAR NUKE: Best MacBooks, WWDC 2023, Save big on MacBooks

Looking to buy the best Chromebook possible but not sure where to start? We at Gear Nuke have you covered as we take you through five of top options you can buy today. This selection of the best Chromebooks will take you through a few various needs and budgets as opposed to just throwing out the most overpowered Chromebooks which wouldn't really suit anyone!

Chromebooks are still a relatively new product having only arrived in 2011 and they're fighting hard to be considered among the best laptops on the market. We’re in a place now where all the big laptop brands are making their very own Chromebook and the retail space has become flooded with choice. With that being said, we will break down all the important aspects of each product to help you make the right decision when you’re ready. Note that the products shown below may vary in specifications between locations.

The best laptops under $500 can be a great option if you’re looking to get a portable setup without breaking the bank. Budget devices have come a long way as technology has progressed, and the low-quality, bulky PCs of the past are long gone, opening the door to a new generation of affordable technology that is great for first-time buyers looking for a solid investment.

Walking into a store to buy a computer can be an overwhelming experience, and with so many options available, all at such drastic price points, finding the best laptop that is also affordable and fits your needs can get complicated. Not to worry though, as Gear Nuke has collated and compared everything from screen and keyboard quality to build quality and design to create this list of the best laptops under $500.

Note: Many of these laptops are only available in certain regions and due to this, where links to products have been provided, we have selected to closest possible laptop that still meets the price requirement where possible.

What is the best laptop you can buy for under $1000? It’s completely normal to set yourself a budget when buying a new laptop but you might be wondering whether or not you’ve set the right target. There might be a temptation to look at much older laptops from recent years because their price will have dropped, but there is plenty of updated technology on the market for a reasonable price. 

A lot of this decision will come down to what you need from the product because, let’s face it, you are not going to get a complete premium hardware package when restricting your budget… or are you? Prepare to be very surprised at what laptops you can get for your money in 2023 and let us here at Gear Nuke guide you in the right direction toward the best laptops possible.

MORE FROM GEAR NUKE: Best MacBooks, WWDC 2023, Save big on MacBooks

Developer: Melbourne House    Publisher: Infogrames    Release: 11/28/00   Genre: Racing Despite its short life the Dreamcast managed to receive a few kart racing games as the genre was exploding in popularity. And to be completely honest they are all bad....

The post Looney Tunes: Space Race appeared first on Classic-Games.net.

The wait for Gekisou! Benza Race - Toilet Shooting Star is almost over

After learning about this game, a toilet racer, I am now retroactively spending the last year anticipating its May 15 release.

An exciting toilet racing game that lets you experience a toilet revolution.
Many circuits and toilet racers are waiting for your challenge.
After customizing the toilet and getting your stomach ready, it’s time to start the race!

Can you seriously read the words “toilet revolution” without being overcome by curiosity? And that screenshot with the amazing “weird arcade game” or even “weird WiiWare game that would never be localized” vibes!

JOIN CLUB TINY AND OUR DISCORD Support Tiny Cartridge!

I have over 1000 hours in Overwatch, but only about a dozen hours in Marvel Rivals, the megalithic comic makers’ attempt to cash in on Blizzard’s once-winning formula. In all the matches I’ve played in the game’s beta as the Guardians of the Galaxy leader Star-Lord alongside other heroes and villains in the Marvel…

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The Acer Predator GM712 is a confusing product to shop for. At the time of writing, there are two GM712s - the slightly cheaper MR.JUX11.001 and the pricier, newer MR.JUX11.002 I'm testing in this review. The main difference is that the 002 offers variable refresh rate (VRR) which I'll get onto below.

These two models are still available at retail stores simultaneously, and though the 02 is likely to replace the 01 entirely once stock runs out, the two products fall into different classes because of their prices. That’s a shame because the GM712 in its 01 configuration is spot on.

At under $1,000/£1,000, 4K with a 60 Hz refresh rate, fantastic color reproduction, and low latencies make it an incredibly appealing pick - easily one of the best gaming projectors. Especially for a pricing bracket that sorely needs some decent 4K gaming projector love. But what of the new GM712? Is it improved? I've tried it for gaming and streaming to find out.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best gaming monitor

Acer is expanding is Chromebook Plus lineup with upgraded versions of two models. One is a general purpose model with a touchscreen display, 360-degree hinge, support for an optional stylus, and the first Intel Meteor Lake chip available in an Acer Chromebook. The other is a gaming Chromebook with an RGB backlit keyboard and big […]

The post Acer launches two premium Chromebooks: the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 convertible and Chromebook Plus 516 GE for cloud gaming appeared first on Liliputing.

We may never get a sequel to Bloodborne or a PC port, but we do have the next best thing: a PSX-style kart racer inspired by it. Nightmare Kart, which has raced down a long and winding road to get to this point, is finally available and it’s entirely free.

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It is going to be one of those Fridays where I am going to uncork a bottle of frustration and rant a bit about various business deals and statements, each of which has managed to make me progressively more annoyed.  When I started this post I thought I might have to divert to Twitter to add in some of the more recent screw ups Elon has made.  But no, the video game industry continues to provide, and the main problem was limiting myself to a few stories and ranking them in the order of how likely they were to make my head explode.

• EG7 Sold PlanetSide and then What Happened?
  

Back in the EG7 Q4 2023 financials it was stated that the PlanteSide IP had been sold.  The actual mention was:

Daybreak successfully closed on the sale of a non-core IP for USD 5.9 million. The transaction provides EG7 with further improvement to its liquidity. This transaction will not affect EG7´s business plan and performance other than the P&L effect from the asset sale.

Closed a deal!  Sold the IP!  That must mean something, right?  A publicly held company can’t just straight up lie about this sort of thing, can they?

It came out later that PlanetSide was the IP in question and that the trademarks had been transferred to Bay Tower, a private equity firm, but that there was some sort of Jason Epstein connection in that and what the hell was that even about and what did it mean to the actual game, PlanetSide 2?  Let me just repost all the links from that point in time in case you are interested.

• • EG7 – Investor Relations Page
  • Massively OP – EG7 Q4 2023
  • Massively OP – Daybreak sold PlanetSide for $5.9M
  • Game Whisperer – PlanetSide IP sold to Shell Corporation
  • Inventory Full – Games for Sale
  • Massively OP – Daybreak’s DC Universe Online studio Dimensional Ink hit with layoffs
  • Gaming Idustry.biz – Daybreak confirms “less than 15” layoffs

And I guess we don’t know the answer to a lot of that, but apparently PlanetSide 2 has been moved within Enad Global 7 to fall under Toadman, the smallest of the EG7 studios, which posted a net loss of $5 million SEK in Q4 2023.

So now they had PlanetSide 2, in contention for the worst performing title in the Daybreak stable, has been moved to the worst performing studio in EG7’s stable.

Yay?

Some coverage:

• • Massively OP – EG7 transfers PlanetSide 2 development from Daybreak to Toadman
  • MMO Bomb – Remember How Daybreak Sold the Planetside IP?

Still, I should not be too hard on Toadman as, on their site they say they have done work for hire for a range of Daybreak titles including PlanetSide 2 and might have been responsible for the console port.  Maybe them taking over PlanetSide 2 will mean a PlayStation 5 native client for the title?  Who knows?

Meanwhile, that still doesn’t answer the question about the IP being sold, who really owns it, why they bought it, what they plan to do with it, or what it means to EG7, though I suspect part of the sale must had included the right to keep using the IP for PlanetSide 2 because to do otherwise would have been insane.

• UbiSoft Says Screw You to fans of The Crew

Back on the first of the year I made a prediction that UbiSoft would do something that would piss me off, and thus help sustain me in my beyond two decades grudge against the studio.  And, of course, they obliged almost right away by declaring their Skull & Bones title a AAAA game.

But, just in case that wasn’t enough, we have how they are handling The Crew, their 2014 racing title, which they are pulling the plug on and removing from player libraries.  If you try to find the copy of The Crew you paid $60 for, UbiSoft will suggest maybe you should buy something new rather than playing that raggedy old title.  They managed to come across so badly that the whole thing is driving a call for game preservation.  Some coverage:

• Massively OP – Ubisoft pulls The Crew 1 from player libraries, encourages them to ‘check the store to pursue your adventures’
• Massively OP – Stop Killing Games is a modern games preservation initiative prompted by The Crew’s cynical sunset
• MMO Bomb – Ubisoft’s “The Crew” Fiasco Is Just One Example Of Why We Need Games Preservation And Physical Media

Now, live service games are always going to be problematic in this arena.  At some point the game will stop earning enough money to pay to keep the servers running… and keeping the servers running costs more than you probably imagine.

On the other hand, a title that charges full price up front better have a plan for when the servers go down.  The servers to support the back end portions of Pokemon Diamond & Pearl were taken down years ago, but I can dig out my old cobalt blue Nintendo DS Lite and STILL PLAY the core portion of those titles.

Saying “Screw you, buy another game!” and yoinking purchases out of player libraries is not a plan, it is a way to bring the wrath of fans down on you.

This is UbiSoft management just being their usual shitty selves.  Business as usual.  I vowed not to give them another nickel when they made it clear they hated their customers more than 20 years ago, and they continue to keep proving it every year for me.

• Mike Ybarra say Let Them Eat Tips!

I was vacillating between making this its own Quote of the Day post or just ignoring it completely because it was so dumb, then hit a middle ground an decided it fit into this piece.  Mike Ybarra, former head of Blizzard, thinks we should be able to tip devs if they make a good game.

That is pretty innocuous in and of itself.  A charmingly naive desire to reward somebody for making a good game would earn a pat on the head from many sources.

However, a former President of Blizzard who demonstrated no issue with paying women less than men for the same job, only giving a mild bleat when Jen Oneal resigned because she was being paid less as Co-President of Blizzard in partnership with Ybarra, and who was blatantly trying to gaslight employees by pleading poverty while cutting bonuses for those outside the executive management boys club, coming out with that sort of statement against the background of mass layoffs in the video game industry just proves he is either completely unaware of reality or a complete shitheel… though, as always, I have to add “why not both?”

People rightfully dogpiled on his since edited tweet to point out the many problems with his sentiment.  Leaving aside the whole “everybody wants tips these days” and the fact that any such mechanism would likely go to the publisher who would extract their cut before passing anything on to the people who did the actual work, the whole thing would encourage publishers and executives to keep industry salaries low by pointing out that tips were now considered part of the compensation package.

If you want to help somebody out, but another copy of an indie dev title you played the hell out of.  That will probably help somebody.  But tips… those will go into somebody elses’ pocket without a doubt.

Coverage:

• Massively OP – Former Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra thinks players should be able to tip developers for their work
• Rock Paper Shotgun – Former Blizzard boss reckons you should be able to tip developers ‘another $10 or $20’ on top of $70 games

Also, here’s to hoping Mike Ybarra fades into even greater irrelevance so I won’t feel the need to ever mention him again.

• The Strains of Im-Possibility Space

We got something of a two-fer from Jeff and Annie Delisi Strain, the husband and wife duo who run/ran Prytania Media which funded several game studios.

The first up was the abrupt closure of Crop Circle Games, which was shut down in late March with little notice and no severance for employees.  A publisher treating game devs as disposable trash?  Must be a day that ends in “Y” I guess.  Crop Circle’s site was replaced by a terse statement about being able to secure funding after two years.  Normal industry stuff, callous but no surprise.

The weird bit is that on April 4th Annie Delisi Strain appended a long rambling statement making the whole situation about herself and the fact that Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach was going to bring her health issues into a story (something that never happened and Kotaku denies was ever planned) that was so strange that even an AI wouldn’t be that incoherent.

Once that bizarre addition got some attention, the site was shut down completely, but not before I went and made sure the Internet Archive had backed it up.  When gaming execs show you who they really are, don’t let them memory hole it later.

Then, a week or so later, Jeff Strain announced another sudden studio shut down (images of his statement), Possibility Space, this time because he alleges that employees were leaking information about their project to the press.  The common thread here is again Kotaku, which was implicated as the reason, with their reporter Ethan Gach being named once more.

“Somebody leaked something so let’s burn the place down!” isn’t a normal business take.

Sure, the games industry isn’t doing well right now, contracting as it is from the pandemic highs when we all stayed home and added to our Steam library in search of distraction, so there are lots of reasons studios shut down.  But when your funding publisher shuts down two studios while attempting to blame one reporter at Kotaku… well, it feels more like the Strains live in some sort of paranoid bubble where Kotaku is out to get them.

• Pity Poor Naive Lars who Blew Up Embracer Group!  Oops!
  

Then we’re back to the Embracer Group, which has been struggling to survive by shutting down projects and laying of developers, all due to some extremely poor and dubious even at first glance business decisions made by CEO Lars Wingefors… who still has his job.

But in an interview over at IGN about Embracer Group Matthew Karch, who is CEO of Sabre Interactive, which managed to break free of the disaster that is Embracer, paints a picture of Lars merely being naive and feels that people are being unfair.  While the interview covers other topics, other sites like Game Developer immediately picked up apologist nature of Karch’s statements.  Incredulity was a common response.

The only things I can come up with for Karch’s narrative is that there is a non-disparagement aspect to his contract taking Sabre out of Embracer’s grip, that he doesn’t want to say anything that will come back to haunt him if/when he too turns out to be an incompetent boob and lays off a bunch of staff, or just solidarity among the capitalist class and feeling the need to protect themselves from all those greedy workers demanding to be paid, as they really eat into CEO bonus potential.

Anyway, back here on planet earth Lars Wingefors, whose compensation package no doubt dwarfs any of the people who actually make the things that Embracer sells, is paid based on the clearly flawed assumption that he is SO SMART AT BUSINESS.   Yet he foolishly bet on the line always going up despite obvious signs there was going to be a reduction in demand, negatively impacted the lives of thousands of people.   And in doing that, the only consequence he has suffered is being publicly called out for it… and dammit, Matthew Karch says that is going way too far!  CEO’s have feelings too man!

It is clearly too much to ask that a CEO be at all responsible for their decisions.  Accountability is for suckers.  Get a job where other people have to pay for your mistakes.

Maybe CEO should get tips.

• Random Rant about Private Equity

Then, not really on the topic of video games, I saw a nice article over at Vox about how private equity firms… also known as equity management and other innocuous terms… have been simply destroying everything they touch in the name of milking every last cent out of companies and then casting them aside to let them fail.

• Vox – What is private equity, and why is it killing everything you love?

They kick off with the example of Toys R Us and how it was bought stripped, and left to die as a deliberate business plan, but you can find many more examples.  The plan is to find the victim target for the same tactic, where a private equity firms buys it out, brings it private, loots it of all value, saddles it with debt, then had a final cash grab by going public with it again in the hope that a familiar name would fool people.

It happens over and over again and the firms that do it set everything up so they get the cash but bear none of the responsibility for what they have done.  Anyway, if you want to get mad, you can read that and how even Taylor Swift has had to fight the vultures of private equity.

There is the constrain refrain from the boss class in the US about “nobody wants to work anymore” that one can trace back over 100 years that is mostly a lament that people kind of expect to be able to live on their wages.

The irony in that is today it feels like nobody on Wall Street wants to run a business, they just want to get paid, either by demanding companies deliver all profits directly to them or through these private equity looting frenzies that destroy a company in the long term in order to get paid today.

We need more regulation in the market.  That’s it.  That’s the message.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) used to be considered too slow to be of practical use in semiconductor manufacturing, but it has emerged as a critical tool for both transistor and interconnect fabrication at the most advanced nodes.

ALD can be speeded up somewhat, but the real shift is the rising value of precise composition and thickness control at the most advanced nodes, which makes the extra time spent on deposition worthwhile.

ALD is a close cousin of chemical vapor deposition, initially introduced in high volume to the semiconductor industry for hafnium oxide (high-k) gate dielectrics. Both CVD and ALD are inherently conformal processes. Deposition occurs on all surfaces exposed to a precursor gas. In ALD, though, the reaction is self-limiting.

The process works like this: First, a precursor gas (A) is introduced into the process chamber, where it adsorbs onto all available substrate sites. No further adsorption occurs once all surface sites are occupied. An inert purge gas, typically nitrogen or argon, flushes out any remaining precursor gas, then a second precursor (B) is introduced. Precursor B reacts with the chemisorbed precursor A to produce the desired film. Once all of the adsorbed molecules are consumed, the reaction stops. After a second purge step, the cycle repeats.

ALD opportunities expand as features shrink
The step-by-step nature of ALD is both its strength and its weakness. Depositing one monolayer at a time gives manufacturers extremely precise thickness control. Using different precursor gases in different ratios can tune the film composition. Unfortunately, the repeated precursor/purge gas cycles take a lot of time. In an interview, CEA-Leti researcher Rémy Gassilloud estimated that in a single wafer process, two minutes per wafer is the maximum cost-effective process time. But two minutes is only enough time to deposit about a 2nm-thick film.

Some process adjustments can improve throughput. Silicon dioxide ALD often uses large furnaces to process many wafers at once. Plasma activation can ionize reagents and accelerate film formation. Still, Gassilloud estimates that 10nm is the maximum practical thickness for ALD films.

As transistors shrink, though, the number of layers in that thickness range is increasing. Transistor structures also are becoming more complex, requiring deposition on vertical surfaces, into deep trenches, and other places not readily accessible by line-of-sight PVD methods. Replacement gates for gate-all-around transistors, for instance, need a process that can fill nanometer-scale cavities.

As noted above, HfO₂ was the first successful application of ALD in semiconductor manufacturing. Its precursors, HfCl₄ and water, are both chemically simple small molecules, whose by-products are volatile and easily removed. Such simple chemistries are the exception, though. ALD of silicon dioxide typically uses aminosilane precursors.⁠[1] Metal nitrides often have complex metal-organic precursor gases. Gassilloud noted that ligands might be added to a precursor molecule to change its vapor pressure or reactivity, or to facilitate adhesion to the substrate. In selective deposition processes, discussed below, ligands might improve selectivity between growth and non-growth surfaces. These larger molecules can be difficult to insinuate into smaller features, and byproducts can be difficult to remove. Complex byproducts can also become a contamination source.

One of the advantages of ALD is its very low process temperature, typically between 200°C and 300°C. It is thermally compatible with both transistor and interconnect processes in CMOS, as well as with deposition on plastic and other novel substrates. Even so, Aditya Kumar and colleagues at GlobalFoundries showed that precise temperature control is important.^⁠[2] TDMAT (tetrakis- dimethylamino titanium) condensation in a TiN deposition process was a significant source of particle defects. To maintain the desired process temperature, both the precursor and purge gas temperatures matter. Introducing cold purge gas into a warm process chamber can cause rapid condensation.

As ALD has become a mainstream process, the industry has found applications for it beyond core device materials, in a variety of sacrificial and spacer layers. For example, double- and quadruple-patterning schemes often use ALD for “pitch-doubling.” By depositing a spacer material on either side of a patterned “mandrel,” then removing the mandrel, the process can cut the original pitch in half without the need for an additional, more costly lithography step.^⁠[3]

Fig. 1: Self-aligned double patterning with ALD spacers. Source: Creative Commons

Depositing a doped oxide on the vertical silicon fins of a finFET device is a less directional and less damaging alternative to ion implantation.[^⁠4]

Selective deposition brings lateral control
These last two examples depend on surface characteristics to mediate deposition. A precursor might adhere more readily to a hard mask than to the underlying material. The vertical face of a silicon fin might offer more (or fewer) adsorption sites than the horizontal face. Selective deposition on more complicated structures may require a pre-deposited growth template, functionalizing substrate regions to encourage or discourage growth. Selective deposition is especially important in interconnect applications. In general, though, a comprehensive review by Rong Chen and colleagues at Huazhong University of Science and Technology explained that selective deposition methods need to replenish the template material as the film grows while needing a mechanism to selectively remove the unwanted material.⁠[5]

For example, tungsten preferentially deposits on silicon relative to SiO₂, but the selectivity diminishes after only a few cycles. Researchers at North Carolina State University successfully re-passivated the oxide by incorporating hydrogen into the tungsten precursor.[⁠6] Similarly, a group at Eindhoven University of Technology found that SiO₂ preferentially deposited on SiO₂ relative to other oxides for only 10 to 15 cycles. A so-called ABC-cycle — adding acetylacetone (“Inhibitor A”) as an inhibitor every 5 to 10 cycles — restored selectivity.⁠[7]

Alternatively, or in addition, atomic layer etching (ALE) might be used to remove unwanted material. ALE operates in the same step-by-step manner as ALD. The first half of a cycle reacts with the existing surface, weakening the bond to the underlying material. Then, a second step — typically ion bombardment — removes the weakened layer. For example, in ALE etching of silicon, chlorine gas reacts with the surface to form various SiCl_x compounds. The chlorination process weakens the inter-silicon bonds between the surface and the bulk, and the chlorinated layer is easily sputtered away. The layer-by-layer nature of ALE depends on preferential removal of the surface material relative to the bulk (SiCl_x vs. Si in this case). The “ALE window” is the combination of energy and temperature at which the surface layer is completely removed without damaging the underlying material.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, Keren Kanarik and colleagues at Lam Research found that higher ion energies actually expanded the ALE window for silicon etching. High ion energies with short exposure times delayed the onset of silicon sputtering relative to conventional RIE.[8]

Adding and subtracting, one atomic layer at a time
For a long time, the semiconductor industry has been looking for alternatives to process schemes that deposit material, pattern it, then etch most of it away. Wouldn’t it be simpler to only deposit the material we will ultimately need? Meanwhile, atomic layer deposition has been filling the spaces under nanosheets and inside cavities. Bulk deposition and etch tools are still with us, and will be for the foreseeable future. In more and more cases, though, those tools provide the frame while ALD and ALE processes fill in the details.

Correction: Corrected attribution of the work on ABC cycles and selective deposition of SiO₂.

References

1. Wenling Li, et al., “Impact of aminosilane and silanol precursor structure on atomic layer deposition process,”Applied Surface Science, Vol 621, 2023,156869, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2023.156869.
2. Kumar, et al., “ALD TiN Surface Defect Reduction for 12nm and Beyond Technologies,” 2020 31st Annual SEMI Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC), Saratoga Springs, NY, USA, 2020, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/ASMC49169.2020.9185271.
3. Shohei Yamauchi, et al., “Extendibility of self-aligned type multiple patterning for further scaling”, Proc. SPIE 8682, Advances in Resist Materials and Processing Technology XXX, 86821D (29 March 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2011953
4. Kalkofen, et al., “Atomic layer deposition of phosphorus oxide films as solid sources for doping of semiconductor structures,” 2018 IEEE 18th International Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE-NANO), Cork, Ireland, 2018, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/NANO.2018.8626235.
5. Rong Chen et al., “Atomic level deposition to extend Moore’s law and beyond,” 2020 Int. J. Extrem. Manuf. 2 022002 DOI 10.1088/2631-7990/ab83e0
6. B Kalanyan, et al., “Using hydrogen to expand the inherent substrate selectivity window during tungsten atomic layer deposition,” 2016 Chem. Mater. 28 117–26 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b03319
7. Alfredo Mameli et al., “Area-Selective Atomic Layer Deposition of SiO2 Using Acetylacetone as a Chemoselective Inhibitor in an ABC-Type Cycle” ACS Nano 2017, 11, 9, 9303–9311. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.7b04701
8. Keren J. Kanarik, et al., “Universal scaling relationship for atomic layer etching,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 39, 010401 (2021); doi: 10.1116/6.0000762

The post Enabling Advanced Devices With Atomic Layer Processes appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) used to be considered too slow to be of practical use in semiconductor manufacturing, but it has emerged as a critical tool for both transistor and interconnect fabrication at the most advanced nodes.

ALD can be speeded up somewhat, but the real shift is the rising value of precise composition and thickness control at the most advanced nodes, which makes the extra time spent on deposition worthwhile.

ALD is a close cousin of chemical vapor deposition, initially introduced in high volume to the semiconductor industry for hafnium oxide (high-k) gate dielectrics. Both CVD and ALD are inherently conformal processes. Deposition occurs on all surfaces exposed to a precursor gas. In ALD, though, the reaction is self-limiting.

The process works like this: First, a precursor gas (A) is introduced into the process chamber, where it adsorbs onto all available substrate sites. No further adsorption occurs once all surface sites are occupied. An inert purge gas, typically nitrogen or argon, flushes out any remaining precursor gas, then a second precursor (B) is introduced. Precursor B reacts with the chemisorbed precursor A to produce the desired film. Once all of the adsorbed molecules are consumed, the reaction stops. After a second purge step, the cycle repeats.

ALD opportunities expand as features shrink
The step-by-step nature of ALD is both its strength and its weakness. Depositing one monolayer at a time gives manufacturers extremely precise thickness control. Using different precursor gases in different ratios can tune the film composition. Unfortunately, the repeated precursor/purge gas cycles take a lot of time. In an interview, CEA-Leti researcher Rémy Gassilloud estimated that in a single wafer process, two minutes per wafer is the maximum cost-effective process time. But two minutes is only enough time to deposit about a 2nm-thick film.

Some process adjustments can improve throughput. Silicon dioxide ALD often uses large furnaces to process many wafers at once. Plasma activation can ionize reagents and accelerate film formation. Still, Gassilloud estimates that 10nm is the maximum practical thickness for ALD films.

As transistors shrink, though, the number of layers in that thickness range is increasing. Transistor structures also are becoming more complex, requiring deposition on vertical surfaces, into deep trenches, and other places not readily accessible by line-of-sight PVD methods. Replacement gates for gate-all-around transistors, for instance, need a process that can fill nanometer-scale cavities.

As noted above, HfO₂ was the first successful application of ALD in semiconductor manufacturing. Its precursors, HfCl₄ and water, are both chemically simple small molecules, whose by-products are volatile and easily removed. Such simple chemistries are the exception, though. ALD of silicon dioxide typically uses aminosilane precursors.⁠[1] Metal nitrides often have complex metal-organic precursor gases. Gassilloud noted that ligands might be added to a precursor molecule to change its vapor pressure or reactivity, or to facilitate adhesion to the substrate. In selective deposition processes, discussed below, ligands might improve selectivity between growth and non-growth surfaces. These larger molecules can be difficult to insinuate into smaller features, and byproducts can be difficult to remove. Complex byproducts can also become a contamination source.

One of the advantages of ALD is its very low process temperature, typically between 200°C and 300°C. It is thermally compatible with both transistor and interconnect processes in CMOS, as well as with deposition on plastic and other novel substrates. Even so, Aditya Kumar and colleagues at GlobalFoundries showed that precise temperature control is important.^⁠[2] TDMAT (tetrakis- dimethylamino titanium) condensation in a TiN deposition process was a significant source of particle defects. To maintain the desired process temperature, both the precursor and purge gas temperatures matter. Introducing cold purge gas into a warm process chamber can cause rapid condensation.

As ALD has become a mainstream process, the industry has found applications for it beyond core device materials, in a variety of sacrificial and spacer layers. For example, double- and quadruple-patterning schemes often use ALD for “pitch-doubling.” By depositing a spacer material on either side of a patterned “mandrel,” then removing the mandrel, the process can cut the original pitch in half without the need for an additional, more costly lithography step.^⁠[3]

Fig. 1: Self-aligned double patterning with ALD spacers. Source: Creative Commons

Depositing a doped oxide on the vertical silicon fins of a finFET device is a less directional and less damaging alternative to ion implantation.[^⁠4]

Selective deposition brings lateral control
These last two examples depend on surface characteristics to mediate deposition. A precursor might adhere more readily to a hard mask than to the underlying material. The vertical face of a silicon fin might offer more (or fewer) adsorption sites than the horizontal face. Selective deposition on more complicated structures may require a pre-deposited growth template, functionalizing substrate regions to encourage or discourage growth. Selective deposition is especially important in interconnect applications. In general, though, a comprehensive review by Rong Chen and colleagues at Huazhong University of Science and Technology explained that selective deposition methods need to replenish the template material as the film grows while needing a mechanism to selectively remove the unwanted material.⁠[5]

For example, tungsten preferentially deposits on silicon relative to SiO₂, but the selectivity diminishes after only a few cycles. Researchers at North Carolina State University successfully re-passivated the oxide by incorporating hydrogen into the tungsten precursor.[⁠6] Similarly, a group at Argonne National Laboratory found that SiO₂ preferentially deposited on SiO₂ relative to other oxides for only 10 to 15 cycles. Adding acetylacetone (“Precursor C”) as an inhibitor every 5 to 10 cycles — restored selectivity.⁠[7]

Alternatively, or in addition, atomic layer etching (ALE) might be used to remove unwanted material. ALE operates in the same step-by-step manner as ALD. The first half of a cycle reacts with the existing surface, weakening the bond to the underlying material. Then, a second step — typically ion bombardment — removes the weakened layer. For example, in ALE etching of silicon, chlorine gas reacts with the surface to form various SiCl_x compounds. The chlorination process weakens the inter-silicon bonds between the surface and the bulk, and the chlorinated layer is easily sputtered away. The layer-by-layer nature of ALE depends on preferential removal of the surface material relative to the bulk (SiCl_x vs. Si in this case). The “ALE window” is the combination of energy and temperature at which the surface layer is completely removed without damaging the underlying material.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, Keren Kanarik and colleagues at Lam Research found that higher ion energies actually expanded the ALE window for silicon etching. High ion energies with short exposure times delayed the onset of silicon sputtering relative to conventional RIE.[8]

Adding and subtracting, one atomic layer at a time
For a long time, the semiconductor industry has been looking for alternatives to process schemes that deposit material, pattern it, then etch most of it away. Wouldn’t it be simpler to only deposit the material we will ultimately need? Meanwhile, atomic layer deposition has been filling the spaces under nanosheets and inside cavities. Bulk deposition and etch tools are still with us, and will be for the foreseeable future. In more and more cases, though, those tools provide the frame while ALD and ALE processes fill in the details.

References

1. Wenling Li, et al., “Impact of aminosilane and silanol precursor structure on atomic layer deposition process,”Applied Surface Science, Vol 621, 2023,156869, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2023.156869.
2. Kumar, et al., “ALD TiN Surface Defect Reduction for 12nm and Beyond Technologies,” 2020 31st Annual SEMI Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC), Saratoga Springs, NY, USA, 2020, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/ASMC49169.2020.9185271.
3. Shohei Yamauchi, et al., “Extendibility of self-aligned type multiple patterning for further scaling”, Proc. SPIE 8682, Advances in Resist Materials and Processing Technology XXX, 86821D (29 March 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2011953
4. Kalkofen, et al., “Atomic layer deposition of phosphorus oxide films as solid sources for doping of semiconductor structures,” 2018 IEEE 18th International Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE-NANO), Cork, Ireland, 2018, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/NANO.2018.8626235.
5. Rong Chen et al., “Atomic level deposition to extend Moore’s law and beyond,” 2020 Int. J. Extrem. Manuf. 2 022002 DOI 10.1088/2631-7990/ab83e0
6. B Kalanyan, et al., “Using hydrogen to expand the inherent substrate selectivity window during tungsten atomic layer deposition,” 2016 Chem. Mater. 28 117–26 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b03319
7. Yanguas-Gil A, Libera J A and Elam J W, “Modulation of the growth per cycle in atomic layer deposition using reversible surface functionalization,” 2013 Chem. Mater. 25 4849–60 https://doi.org/10.1021/cm4029098
8. Keren J. Kanarik, et al., “Universal scaling relationship for atomic layer etching,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 39, 010401 (2021); doi: 10.1116/6.0000762

The post Enabling Advanced Devices With Atomic Layer Processes appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.

Aftermarket tinkering on Android phones isn't as prominent as it once used to be. That's not to say you can't root your Android phone or install a custom ROM like LineageOS on it. You can still tinker and customize your phone to a large extent as long as you have the interest and the technical know-how. Most — if not all — aftermarket tinkering requires you to connect your Android smartphone to a computer using a USB cable, so you can use tools like the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to interact with the device.

Acer launched its first Chromebook Plus-branded laptops last fall, with a 14 inch model powered by AMD Mendocino processor options and a 15 inch version featuring 12th-gen or 13th-gen Intel Core processors. Now the company is expanding its Chromebook Plus family with a new 14 inch model powered by an Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core processor. […]

The post Acer’s new Chromebook Plus 514 is a $400 Chromebook with Intel Core i3-N305 appeared first on Liliputing.

Our overruling principle is to always maximize shareholder value in any given situation.

-Embracer Group, Calendar Q4 2023 Financial Report

This past week the train wreck that is the once ominously (and now tragically) named Embracer Group declared that sure, they were laying off staff and cancelling almost every project they had going, but it was because their “overruling principle is to always maximize shareholder value in any given situation,” which is such an astonishing lie that I combed Swedish police blotter entries for reports of individuals whose pants were literally on fire.

Embracer Group has been the victim of tragicly incompentent management of the company, studios, and brands they own.  Remember, these are the people who own all of Tolkien and declared that they were going to fix their issues by exploiting Middle-earth to the maximum.

If there were any justice in the world the senior execs at Embracer as a whole, and CEO Lars Wingefors in particular, would be run out of town on a rail, then face lawsuits and possible criminal charges for their overtly deceptive behavior at the helm of the enterprise.

Instead of reprecussions however, those execs are trying to claim they are very concerned about shareholder value while being shocked and surprised that their gamble with shareholder money did not play out.

The thing is, when you’ve screwed things up so badly and so deliberately, if you start spending your Saudi blood investment money before you’ve closed the deal and you don’t have the good sense to have a plan, then you have already blown your fiduciary responsibility to the investors, you have already proven that you do not, in fact, in any way, have the maximization of shareholder value in mind in the operation of your business.

You cannot fuck everything up and then claim to be a champion of the shareholders.

There is a lot to hate about that quote at the top of the post.  Certainly at the top of the list would be equating short term stock price with shareholder value.  Shareholder value is a lot more than that, or should be.  I am keenly aware of the perverse incentives that reward short term thinking, that only what is happening in the current fiscal quarter matters, and how captial management groups and Wall Street in general hold  companies accountable only on that dynamic.

All of this late stage capitalism where gambling on stock prices and demanding that the line must always go up is very bad and will always end in tears.

(You can read a bit about Tom Toro here.)

It is easy to get mad about that, and more people should be mad about that.

But Embracer isn’t even in that league.  These fuckwits screwed things up in patently predictable and obvious ways, during which time they were clearly not considering shareholder value with any more depth than if they had gone to Vegas and put all of their money on red.

It was only after screwing things up and getting the company in a bind that they decided it was time to come out and make an empty declaration about shareholder value.

I am reminded of a Dennis Miller quote about nobody finding Christ on prom night.  It is only when you’ve fucked everything up that seeking salvation seems like a good plan.

For once I am on the side of Wall Street.  Or I would be if I had any hope that they would see through this bald face lie and vote the rascals out at the earliest possible opportunity.  Again, justice would be the executive staff finishing their lives working at an off-brand fast food restaurant where their shift leader asked them at least once a week how the shareholder value thing was going.  Hey Lars, how is the shareholder value today?  Did that customer get any shareholder value with their lutefiske Lars?  What are you doing at the deep fryer that is maximizng shareholder value Lars?

A man can dream.

Alas, it won’t come to pass.  If there is one thing I have learned in life is that the rich take care of the rich.  As a CEO you only face actual reprecussions if you betray your class.  Even if they drive the whole thing into the ground, which they could still do given the business accumen they have shown so far, they’ll still get positions of responsibility, serve on boards, and prosper in all the little ways that show how the rich take care of their own.

Related:

• Game Developer – Embracer says it’s looking out for shareholders after cutting almost 1,400 jobs
• Massively OP – Embracer confirms layoffs of nearly 1400 people were part of efforts to ‘always maximize shareholder value’
• Kotaku – Embracer Cancelled Nearly 30 Games In Just 6 Months
• IGN – Embracer Warns of More Layoffs Despite Already Letting Go 1,387 Staff
• Games Radar – Embracer Group quietly cancelled 29 unannounced games and shut 7 studios within six months last year
• PC Gamer – Embracer reveals it laid off around 1,400 people in 6 months last year, but don’t be a bellyacher—this is all about ‘maximising shareholder value’
• Fandom Wire – “always maximize shareholder value”: Embracer Group Shows Its True Colours After Sacking More Employees
• Gamesindustry.biz – Embracer CEO says layoffs are “something that everyone needs to get through”

Embracer bought Borderlands maker Gearbox Entertainment for $1.3 billion back in early 2021 amid an unprecedented acquisition spree that’s since turned into a financial disaster. Now, just three years later, Kotaku has learned that Gearbox is closer than ever to being sold out from under what is arguably the most…

Read more...

Our overruling principle is to always maximize shareholder value in any given situation.

-Embracer Group, Calendar Q4 2023 Financial Report

This past week the train wreck that is the once ominously (and now tragically) named Embracer Group declared that sure, they were laying off staff and cancelling almost every project they had going, but it was because their “overruling principle is to always maximize shareholder value in any given situation,” which is such an astonishing lie that I combed Swedish police blotter entries for reports of individuals whose pants were literally on fire.

Embracer Group has been the victim of tragicly incompentent management of the company, studios, and brands they own.  Remember, these are the people who own all of Tolkien and declared that they were going to fix their issues by exploiting Middle-earth to the maximum.

If there were any justice in the world the senior execs at Embracer as a whole, and CEO Lars Wingefors in particular, would be run out of town on a rail, then face lawsuits and possible criminal charges for their overtly deceptive behavior at the helm of the enterprise.

Instead of reprecussions however, those execs are trying to claim they are very concerned about shareholder value while being shocked and surprised that their gamble with shareholder money did not play out.

The thing is, when you’ve screwed things up so badly and so deliberately, if you start spending your Saudi blood investment money before you’ve closed the deal and you don’t have the good sense to have a plan, then you have already blown your fiduciary responsibility to the investors, you have already proven that you do not, in fact, in any way, have the maximization of shareholder value in mind in the operation of your business.

You cannot fuck everything up and then claim to be a champion of the shareholders.

There is a lot to hate about that quote at the top of the post.  Certainly at the top of the list would be equating short term stock price with shareholder value.  Shareholder value is a lot more than that, or should be.  I am keenly aware of the perverse incentives that reward short term thinking, that only what is happening in the current fiscal quarter matters, and how captial management groups and Wall Street in general hold  companies accountable only on that dynamic.

All of this late stage capitalism where gambling on stock prices and demanding that the line must always go up is very bad and will always end in tears.

(You can read a bit about Tom Toro here.)

It is easy to get mad about that, and more people should be mad about that.

But Embracer isn’t even in that league.  These fuckwits screwed things up in patently predictable and obvious ways, during which time they were clearly not considering shareholder value with any more depth than if they had gone to Vegas and put all of their money on red.

It was only after screwing things up and getting the company in a bind that they decided it was time to come out and make an empty declaration about shareholder value.

I am reminded of a Dennis Miller quote about nobody finding Christ on prom night.  It is only when you’ve fucked everything up that seeking salvation seems like a good plan.

For once I am on the side of Wall Street.  Or I would be if I had any hope that they would see through this bald face lie and vote the rascals out at the earliest possible opportunity.  Again, justice would be the executive staff finishing their lives working at an off-brand fast food restaurant where their shift leader asked them at least once a week how the shareholder value thing was going.  Hey Lars, how is the shareholder value today?  Did that customer get any shareholder value with their lutefiske Lars?  What are you doing at the deep fryer that is maximizng shareholder value Lars?

A man can dream.

Alas, it won’t come to pass.  If there is one thing I have learned in life is that the rich take care of the rich.  As a CEO you only face actual reprecussions if you betray your class.  Even if they drive the whole thing into the ground, which they could still do given the business accumen they have shown so far, they’ll still get positions of responsibility, serve on boards, and prosper in all the little ways that show how the rich take care of their own.

Related:

• Game Developer – Embracer says it’s looking out for shareholders after cutting almost 1,400 jobs
• Massively OP – Embracer confirms layoffs of nearly 1400 people were part of efforts to ‘always maximize shareholder value’
• Kotaku – Embracer Cancelled Nearly 30 Games In Just 6 Months
• IGN – Embracer Warns of More Layoffs Despite Already Letting Go 1,387 Staff
• Games Radar – Embracer Group quietly cancelled 29 unannounced games and shut 7 studios within six months last year
• PC Gamer – Embracer reveals it laid off around 1,400 people in 6 months last year, but don’t be a bellyacher—this is all about ‘maximising shareholder value’
• Fandom Wire – “always maximize shareholder value”: Embracer Group Shows Its True Colours After Sacking More Employees
• Gamesindustry.biz – Embracer CEO says layoffs are “something that everyone needs to get through”

Our overruling principle is to always maximize shareholder value in any given situation.

-Embracer Group, Calendar Q4 2023 Financial Report

This past week the train wreck that is the once ominously (and now tragically) named Embracer Group declared that sure, they were laying off staff and cancelling almost every project they had going, but it was because their “overruling principle is to always maximize shareholder value in any given situation,” which is such an astonishing lie that I combed Swedish police blotter entries for reports of individuals whose pants were literally on fire.

Embracer Group has been the victim of tragicly incompentent management of the company, studios, and brands they own.  Remember, these are the people who own all of Tolkien and declared that they were going to fix their issues by exploiting Middle-earth to the maximum.

If there were any justice in the world the senior execs at Embracer as a whole, and CEO Lars Wingefors in particular, would be run out of town on a rail, then face lawsuits and possible criminal charges for their overtly deceptive behavior at the helm of the enterprise.

Instead of reprecussions however, those execs are trying to claim they are very concerned about shareholder value while being shocked and surprised that their gamble with shareholder money did not play out.

The thing is, when you’ve screwed things up so badly and so deliberately, if you start spending your Saudi blood investment money before you’ve closed the deal and you don’t have the good sense to have a plan, then you have already blown your fiduciary responsibility to the investors, you have already proven that you do not, in fact, in any way, have the maximization of shareholder value in mind in the operation of your business.

You cannot fuck everything up and then claim to be a champion of the shareholders.

There is a lot to hate about that quote at the top of the post.  Certainly at the top of the list would be equating short term stock price with shareholder value.  Shareholder value is a lot more than that, or should be.  I am keenly aware of the perverse incentives that reward short term thinking, that only what is happening in the current fiscal quarter matters, and how captial management groups and Wall Street in general hold  companies accountable only on that dynamic.

All of this late stage capitalism where gambling on stock prices and demanding that the line must always go up is very bad and will always end in tears.

(You can read a bit about Tom Toro here.)

It is easy to get mad about that, and more people should be mad about that.

But Embracer isn’t even in that league.  These fuckwits screwed things up in patently predictable and obvious ways, during which time they were clearly not considering shareholder value with any more depth than if they had gone to Vegas and put all of their money on red.

It was only after screwing things up and getting the company in a bind that they decided it was time to come out and make an empty declaration about shareholder value.

I am reminded of a Dennis Miller quote about nobody finding Christ on prom night.  It is only when you’ve fucked everything up that seeking salvation seems like a good plan.

For once I am on the side of Wall Street.  Or I would be if I had any hope that they would see through this bald face lie and vote the rascals out at the earliest possible opportunity.  Again, justice would be the executive staff finishing their lives working at an off-brand fast food restaurant where their shift leader asked them at least once a week how the shareholder value thing was going.  Hey Lars, how is the shareholder value today?  Did that customer get any shareholder value with their lutefiske Lars?  What are you doing at the deep fryer that is maximizng shareholder value Lars?

A man can dream.

Alas, it won’t come to pass.  If there is one thing I have learned in life is that the rich take care of the rich.  As a CEO you only face actual reprecussions if you betray your class.  Even if they drive the whole thing into the ground, which they could still do given the business accumen they have shown so far, they’ll still get positions of responsibility, serve on boards, and prosper in all the little ways that show how the rich take care of their own.

Related:

• Game Developer – Embracer says it’s looking out for shareholders after cutting almost 1,400 jobs
• Massively OP – Embracer confirms layoffs of nearly 1400 people were part of efforts to ‘always maximize shareholder value’
• Kotaku – Embracer Cancelled Nearly 30 Games In Just 6 Months
• IGN – Embracer Warns of More Layoffs Despite Already Letting Go 1,387 Staff
• Games Radar – Embracer Group quietly cancelled 29 unannounced games and shut 7 studios within six months last year
• PC Gamer – Embracer reveals it laid off around 1,400 people in 6 months last year, but don’t be a bellyacher—this is all about ‘maximising shareholder value’
• Fandom Wire – “always maximize shareholder value”: Embracer Group Shows Its True Colours After Sacking More Employees
• Gamesindustry.biz – Embracer CEO says layoffs are “something that everyone needs to get through”

Acer is refreshing two of its thin and light laptops with new models powered by AMD’s Ryzen 8040 processors featuring RDNA 3 integrated graphics and Ryzen AI features. The new Acer Swift Go 14 (SG140-63/T) sells for $700 and up and supports up to a 14 inch, 2.8K OLED, 90 Hz display and Ryzen 9 8945HS […]

The post Acer Swift Go 14 and Swift Edge 16 laptops get a Ryzen 8040 update appeared first on Liliputing.