28,988 technical terms and definitions
edge ai explained, edge ai vs cloud ai, on-device ai meaning, what does edge ai mean
Edge AI runs a model directly on the device that generated the data — a phone, a camera, a car — instead of sending that data to a remote data center and waiting for a response.…
Edge placement error, or EPE, is the total deviation between where a feature's edge is actually formed on a chip and where it was intended to be, combining both lithography…
euv lithography explained, extreme ultraviolet lithography meaning, how does euv work, euv chip manufacturing
EUV lithography is a chipmaking technique that uses extreme ultraviolet light — with a wavelength roughly fourteen times shorter than the light used in older lithography methods…
fabless company meaning, fabless vs idm, fabless semiconductor model, what does fabless mean
A fabless company designs chips but doesn't own or operate the factories that manufacture them, instead paying a foundry to fabricate its designs — a business model that lets…
Fan-out wafer-level packaging, or FOWLP, is a chip packaging method that embeds individual dies in a reconstituted mold compound and builds redistribution wiring extending beyond…
federated learning explained, federated ai training meaning, federated learning privacy, what does federated learning do
Federated learning is a way of training AI models across many separate devices or locations without ever centralizing the underlying data — each device trains on its own local…
Fine-tuning is the process of taking an already-trained general-purpose model and further training it on a smaller, more specific dataset, adapting its behavior for a particular…
what is a finfet, gate all around transistor explained, nanosheet transistor architecture, 3nm transistor structure, gate all around vs finfet
FinFET and GAA (Gate-All-Around) are the two transistor shapes the entire fab process you've just walked through was actually built to produce. Every step covered so far — litho…
flip chip explained, flip chip vs wire bonding, flip chip bonding meaning, what does flip chip mean
Flip chip packaging is a method of connecting a silicon die to its package by flipping the die upside down and attaching it directly via an array of tiny solder bumps across its…
what is FEOL
Front-end-of-line, or FEOL, refers to the earlier stage of chip fabrication where individual transistors are actually built into the silicon wafer itself, before any of the metal…
high k dielectric explained, gate leakage quantum tunneling, silicon dioxide gate insulator, transistor gate dielectric, gate oxide thickness scaling
Gate oxide is the thin insulating layer sitting directly between a transistor's gate and its channel, and its whole job is to let the gate control the channel electrically without…
multi query attention explained, gqa vs mqa, kv cache size reduction, attention heads sharing keys values, llm serving memory optimization
Multi-query and grouped-query attention are two ways of shrinking the KV cache itself, by making multiple attention heads share the same keys and values instead of each head…
Gradient checkpointing is a training technique that discards most intermediate activations during a neural network's forward pass and recomputes them as needed during the backward…
hbm explained, hbm meaning ai chips, high bandwidth memory vs regular memory, what does hbm stand for
High bandwidth memory, or HBM, is a type of memory built by stacking multiple memory dies vertically and connecting them with extremely short, wide internal connections, achieving…
HTML, hypertext markup language, markup, tag, element, attribute, href, web page structure, HTML CSS JavaScript, view source, how HTML works
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the language that describes the structure and content of a web page — it is the text a web server sends to your browser, which the browser then…
immersion lithography explained, water immersion lithography meaning, duv immersion, immersion lithography vs euv
Immersion lithography is a technique that places a thin layer of purified water between the lens and the wafer during DUV lithography, using water's optical properties to bend…
ion implantation explained, semiconductor doping process, boron phosphorus arsenic dopant, spike anneal activation, source drain junction implant
Ion implantation is how a fab actually changes silicon's electrical personality, not just its shape. Etch and CVD sculpt and build up physical structure, but neither one turns…
IR drop is the reduction in voltage that occurs as current flows through the resistance of a chip's power distribution network, meaning circuits located farther from the power…
Knowledge distillation is a machine learning technique where a smaller, more efficient model is trained to mimic the outputs of a larger, more capable model, transferring much…
what is a KGD
A known good die, or KGD, is a die that has been electrically tested and verified to meet its full performance and quality specifications before being assembled into a package…
ler lithography explained, line edge roughness meaning, chip manufacturing edge roughness, what does ler mean
Line edge roughness, or LER, refers to the small, irregular waviness along the edges of a patterned feature on a chip — instead of a perfectly smooth, straight line, real…
prefill vs decode explained, kv cache transformer, roofline model ai accelerator, llm serving throughput latency, memory bandwidth bound inference
LLM inference is running an already-trained model forward to answer a live request, and it behaves nothing like training on the hardware underneath it. Training adjusts a model's…
Massive MIMO, or massive multiple-input multiple-output, is a wireless technology that equips a base station with a very large number of antennas, letting it serve many users…
metadata, data about data, EXIF, file properties, tags, timestamp, author, GPS location, privacy, strip metadata, how metadata works
Metadata is data about data — information that describes other information rather than being the main content itself — and it is everywhere once you look: the photo is the data…
semiconductor metrology explained, wafer inspection defect detection, CD-SEM overlay scatterometry, statistical process control fab, OCD critical dimension measurement
Metrology and inspection are how a fab knows whether the last 60 process steps actually worked, without waiting until the finished chip fails to find out. After nearly every…
mmwave explained, millimeter wave 5g meaning, mmwave vs sub-6, what does mmwave mean
Millimeter wave, often called mmWave, refers to a very high-frequency band of radio spectrum used by some 5G networks, offering dramatically more available bandwidth and faster…
mimo wireless explained, mimo meaning 5g, multiple input multiple output, what does mimo stand for
MIMO, short for multiple-input multiple-output, is a wireless technology that uses multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver to send and receive several data streams…
mixed precision training explained, ai training precision meaning, mixed precision ai model, what does mixed precision mean
Mixed precision training is a technique for training AI models that uses lower-precision numbers for most calculations to gain speed and memory savings, while selectively keeping…
moe llm architecture explained, sparse expert routing, moe vs dense model, expert router transformer, moe memory capacity accelerator
Mixture-of-experts (MoE) is an architecture where a model has far more total parameters than a comparably-sized dense model, but only activates a small fraction of them for any…
MOCVD, or metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, is a specialized deposition technique that uses metal-organic precursor gases to grow high-quality crystalline compound…
ai model distillation explained, knowledge distillation meaning, teacher student model ai, what does model distillation mean
Model distillation is a technique for training a smaller, faster "student" AI model to mimic the behavior of a larger, more capable "teacher" model, transferring much of…
model quantization explained, ai model quantization meaning, quantization neural network, why quantize ai models
Model quantization is a technique that shrinks an AI model by representing its internal numbers with less precision — for example, using 8-bit values instead of the 32-bit values…
moore's law explained, moores law meaning, is moores law dead, moores law transistor count
Moore's Law is the observation, made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, that the number of transistors that can be economically packed onto a chip roughly doubles every…
Multi-patterning is a lithography technique that splits a single densely packed layer's pattern across multiple separate exposure and etch steps, achieving finer feature spacing…
Network function virtualization, or NFV, is an approach that replaces dedicated hardware appliances for network functions like firewalls or routers with software running on…
Network slicing is a 5G capability that lets a single physical network be divided into multiple separate, virtual networks, each independently configured and tuned for a different…
non-recurring engineering cost, chip nre explained, semiconductor nre meaning, nre vs per-unit cost
Non-recurring engineering cost, or NRE cost, refers to the one-time upfront expense of designing and preparing a chip for manufacturing — covering things like design work…
opc lithography explained, optical proximity correction meaning, computational lithography opc, what does opc mean in chip manufacturing
Optical proximity correction, or OPC, is a computational technique that deliberately distorts the pattern on a photomask in precise, calculated ways so that after light…
what is out of order execution
Out-of-order execution is a processor design technique where instructions are allowed to run in whatever order their inputs become ready, rather than strictly in the order they…
photoresist explained, photoresist lithography meaning, positive vs negative photoresist, how does photoresist work
Photoresist is a light-sensitive chemical coating applied to a silicon wafer before lithography, one that chemically changes when exposed to light so that, after development, it…
plasma etching explained, RIE vs ICP etch, anisotropic etch semiconductor, dry etch process chip fabrication, plasma etch selectivity endpoint
Plasma etch is how a chip factory carves the pattern from a photomask into the actual silicon, layer by layer. After lithography exposes a resist pattern on the wafer, that…
Plasma etching is a fabrication process that uses a chemically reactive, ionized gas to remove material from a wafer's surface in a controlled pattern, enabling the fine…
poly gate etch explained, gate critical dimension control, polysilicon gate fabrication, gate etch stop on oxide, transistor gate patterning
Polysilicon etch is the process step that carves polycrystalline silicon into precise gate shapes, and for decades it was the single most critical etch step in the entire fab…
int8 fp8 int4 explained, llm quantization accuracy tradeoff, weight only quantization, activation quantization inference, quantization memory bandwidth ai accelerator
Quantization is the practice of storing and computing a model's weights and activations in fewer bits than the 16 or 32 bits they were trained in, trading a small amount…
Quantization-aware training is a technique that simulates the effects of reduced numerical precision during a neural network's training process itself, letting the model adapt…
quantum computing explained, what is a qubit, quantum computing meaning, quantum vs classical computing
Quantum computing is a fundamentally different approach to computation that uses quantum bits, or "qubits," instead of the ordinary bits every classical chip relies on — where…
ram explained, ram vs storage, random access memory, how does ram work
RAM, or random access memory, is the fast, temporary workspace a computer uses to hold whatever it's actively working on — open programs, loaded data, the current state of a game…
Rapid thermal annealing, or RTA, is a process that briefly heats a wafer to a high temperature for only seconds at a time, used to activate dopants and repair implant damage…
Reinforcement learning is a way of training an AI system by letting it take actions in an environment and learn from the resulting rewards or penalties — rather than learning…
what is RAG AI
Retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, is a technique that combines a language model with an external search step, retrieving relevant documents or facts from an outside…