A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Strictly speaking, a semiconductor is a material with an electrical conductivity between that of an insulator and that of a conductor. Semiconductors can be single elements such as silicon or germanium or compounds such as gallium arsenide or indium phosphide. In day to day usage, however, the term "semiconductor" more frequently refers to the components manufactured from semiconductor materials.
- F
1) Fluorine
2) Farad (measure of capacitance)
- F-11
"freon"-11, historically one of the more commonly used chlorofluorocarbons
- F-12
"freon"-12, historically one of the more commonly used chlorofluorocarbons
- F/C
Flow Chart
- FA
Failure Analysis
- FAA
Federal Aviation Administration
- Fab
Semiconductor industry abbreviation for wafer fabrication facility, where wafers are manufactured.
Wafer fabs need a special environment. Extremely strict criteria for cleanliness (required for the high precision processes). The air in the manufacturing rooms is 10,000 to 100,000 times purer than the surrounding air. Operators wear special clothing.
- Fabless
Describes a semiconductor company with no wafer production facilities. Fabless semiconductor companies rely on silicon foundries to produce parts.
- Fabrication
In semiconductor manufacturing, fabrication usually refers to the (front-end) process of making devices in semiconductor wafers, but usually does not include the package assembly (back-end) stages.
- FAE
Field Application Engineer
- FAI
First Article of Inspection
- Failure analysis
An orderly procedure for determining the reason that a device has failed. The results are frequently useful for enhancing the reliability of subsequent products.
(see also FMECA)
- Failure Rate
A rate of failure per unit time, for example, 3 failures per 164 hours or 1 failure per day, etc. Semiconductors are usually measured in failures per 1000 hours.
- FAIS
Failure Analysis Information System
Software used to manage Failure Analysis Requests.
- Fallout
In general terms, any solid matter which, having been emitted to the atmosphere by human activities (such as smokestack or tailpipe particulate matter) or by natural processes (like dust storms, volcanoes, forest fires) returns to the earth's surface by gravitational settling. It is used particularly to indicate the settling over a wide area of the radioactive particles introduced into the atmosphere by a nuclear accident or explosion. The particles can be transported thousands of miles before settling to the ground.
- FAO
Food and Agriculture Organisation
- FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
- FAR
Failure Analysis Report/Request
- FAR
Fingerprint Acceptance Ratio
- Fax
Facsimile
- FBC
Fluidized Bed Combustion
- FBGA
Fine Pitch Ball Grid Array
- FDCA
Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
- f/cc
Fibers per cubic centimeter
- FC
Fluorocarbon
- FC/AL
Fiber channel/Arbitrated Loop
Serial peripheral interface standard.
- FCC
Federal Communication Commission
US telecom organization ("selling" frequencies).
- FDA
Food and Drug Administration in the United States
- FDC
Floppy Disk Controller
- FDDI
Fiber Distributed Data Interface
- FDI
Flash Data Integrator
- FDM
Frequency-Division Multiplex
- FDMA
Frequency-division Multiple Access
Access method to the network (Telecom).
- FE
1) Front-End
2) Fugitive Emissions
- Feature Size
See "Minimum Geometry".
- FEC
Forward Error correction
Set top box appliaction
- Femto
A prefix meaning one quadrillionth (xlo-15).
Symbol is f.
- FeRAM
Ferro-Electric Random Access Memory
- FET
1) Formation, Education and Training
Covers all aspects of learning to improve behavior practices and skills.
2) Field Effect Transistor
A solid-state device in which current is controlled between source and drain terminals by voltage applied to a gate terminal, which is insulated from the semiconductor substrate.
- FEV
Forced Expiratory Volume
- FF
Flip Flop
- FFFSG
Fossil-Fuel-Fired Steam Generator
- FFSK
Fast Frequency Shift Keying
- FFT
Fast Fourier Transform
- FG
Finished Good(s)
- FGD
Flue Gas Desulfurization
- FIB
Focused Ion Beam
Opening through oxydes and deposition of conducting layers and bond pads.
- FID
Flame Ionization Detector
- Field Oxide
A thick layer of dielectric, generally silicon dioxide, that covers the inactive portion of the semiconductor surface.
- FIFRA
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
- FIFO
First In, First Out
- FIG
Figure
- Filename extension mapping
Connecting all files with a certain filename extension to a program. For example, through the Windows NT Explorer, all .txt files are associated by default with Notepad.
- Filter Press
A piece of equipment used in wastewater treatment plants to dewater the sludge created during precipitation steps.
- Filtration
A step which can be used in wastewater treatment plants to separate precipitated sludge from the remaining wastewater.
- FIM
Friable Insulation Material
- Final Test
The electrical evaluation of the packaged device.
- Firewall
A system or combination of systems that enforces a boundary between two or more networks and keeps hackers out of private networks.
- Firewire
High speed serial bus (Disk drive).
- Fishbone Diagram
see "Cause and effect diagram"
- Fission
A reaction that results from the breaking up of large atoms to form smaller atoms. Fission can be spontaneous because the atom is inherently unstable or it can be made to occur by bombarding the atom with sub-atomic particles moving at very high speed. Fission is accompanied by a very significant release of heat energy. The process is the underlying force for the release of energy from the detonation of an atom bomb. Under more controlled conditions, fission is the basis of electricity production from nuclear reactors.
- FIT
Failure In Time
- FITL
Fiber In The Loop
- Flash memory
Flash memories combine high density and cost effectiveness of EPROMs with the electrical erasability of E EPROMs. For this reason, the flash memory market is one of the most exciting areas of the semiconductor industry today and new applications requiring in system reprogramming, such as Cellular Telephones, Automotive Engine Management Systems, Hard Disk Drives, PC BIOS Software for Plug & Play, Digital TV, Set Top Boxes, Fax and other Modems, PC Cards and Multimedia CD-ROMs, offer the prospect of very high volume demand.
- Flat Band Voltage
The voltage at which the net charge in the semiconductor is zero.
- Flat Pack
A ceramic surface-mounted hermetic package. Very popular for military applications because of its small size, but characterized by lead and package seal fragility, poor structural strength, excessive gold, and loose particle problems.
- Flat Zone
The region in a process tub or chamber where the temperature is controlled to some specification tolerance.
- FLC
Fire Lighter Circuit
- Flip-Chip
An IC designed for face-down mounting, attached by controlled collapse solder pillars on 1/0 (bonding) pads of the device.
- Flip-Flop
An electrical circuit having two stable states: on and off. A basic logic circuit component.
- FLOPS
Floating Point Operations per Second
a common benchmark measurement for rating the speed of microprocessors. Floating-point operations include any operations that involve fractional numbers. Such operations, which take much longer to compute than integer operations, occur often in some applications. Most modern microprocessors include a floating-point unit (FPU), which is a specialized part of the microprocessor responsible for executing floating-point operations. The FLOPS measurement, therefore, actually measures the speed of the FPU. One of the most common benchmark tests used to measure FLOPS is called Linpack.
- Flow Chart
A sketch or a diagram that shows sequential actions and decisions at each step of a process.
- FLP
Flash Point
- Fluoride (F-)
A negative ion formed from the element fluorine, or a compound containing fluorine. Fluoride combines with tooth enamel to render it less soluble in acid environments and fluoride compounds are added to public water supplies to prevent tooth decay. However, if the levels of fluoride in water are too high, the teeth will be irreversibly attacked. High fluoride levels in water are also toxic to aquatic life.
- FM
Frequency Modulation
- FMEA
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis
A formalized methodology for anticipating and prioritizing possible failure modes of a new or changed design, procedure or process step and implementing preventive or control procedures in advance.
- FMECA
Failure Mode Effects and Critical Analysis
A qualitative method of system reliability analysis which involves the study of the failure modes which can exist in any item of the system.
- FML
Flexible Membrane Liner
- FMV
Full Motion Video
- FMVC
Federal Motor Vehicle Control Program
- FOB
Free On Board
Incoterm
- FOC
Free Of Charge
- FOIA
Freedom of Information Act
- Food chain
The flow of carbon and energy within a specified area as a result of the feeding sequence of organisms within a community. The organisms are divided into trophic levels, which depend on how an individual organism obtains its food.
The first level in the chain is occupied by the green plants, termed primary producers; those animals that consume the plants are termed herbivores or consumers and are placed in the second trophic level; the animals that eat other animals are termed carnivores or secondary consumers and are placed in the highest feeding level.
The transfer of materials or mass from one trophic level to the next is approximately 10% efficient. In a simple food chain consisting of grass (primary producer) to rabbit (herbivore) to owl (carnivore), 1,000 pounds of grass would be needed to support 100 pounds of rabbit which, in turn, would support 10 pounds of owl.
The food chain thus described is referred to as a grazing food chain since it is based on the consumption of live, standing biomass (the grass). Other food chains are based on the consumption of the remains of dead organisms. The primary consumers in such food chains, referred to as detritus based, consist of bacteria, fungi, and various worms and insects (termed the decomposer community). The next highest trophic level consists of those carnivores that consume these decomposers.
- FORTRAN
FORmula TRANslation
- Fossil Fuels
Carbon-based fuels which have been formed by the very slow transformation over millions of years of dead vegetable matter, and in that sense are "fossilized".
Fossil fuels consist of solids (coal is the main example, of which there are various forms normally ranked by their hardness, but there are also solid tar beds and tar sands, while in some parts of the world peat continues to be used), liquids (the primary example is crude oil, which also comes in many grades, from the very viscous and heavy to the light, and from "sour" (containing high levels of sulfur) to "sweet" (containing low levels of sulfur); another liquid fuel is liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), consisting of mixtures of propane, butane and pentane) and gases (named natural gas, whose composition varies but is mainly methane). Apart from being a non-renewable resource, fossil fuels also play an important role in many environmental issues.
Their combustion is the primary source of the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which have been implicated in the greenhouse effect, their incorrect combustion (primarily in cars) can give rise to significant levels of carbon monoxide in city environments, the sulfur which certain fractions of coals and oils contain in significant quantities are the primary source of sulfur dioxide emissions, and because they are nearly always burned with air (containing nitrogen) their combustion is a major source of nitrogen oxides (the latter, however, is true also for the combustion of renewable carbon-based fuels such as wood). At a more general level, the use of fossil fuels has been the primary factor behind the explosive growth which the world's economy has witnessed since the start of the Industrial Revolution, which has brought with it both indisputable benefits for mankind but also severe strains on the world ecosystem.
Finally, the use of liquid fossil fuels in particular has completely transformed land use patterns, allowing for large expansions in cities at the expense of the surrounding land but also for substantial transformations in the size and distribution of agricultural holdings.
- Four-point probe
An electrical evaluation instrument containing four precisely spaced probes that contact the semiconductor surface to measure the dopants within the semiconductor wafer. This measurement is called sheet resistance.
- FP
1) Fine Particulate
2) Floating Point
- FPD
Flame Photometric Detector
- FPGA
Field Programmable Gate Array
- FPLA
Field Programmable Logic Array
A PLA that can be programmed by the user.
- FPPA
Federal Pollution Prevention Act
- FPROM
Field Programmable Read-Only Memory
- FPU
Floating Point execution Unit
- FQFP
Fine-pitch QFP with lead pitches of 0.5 mm or less.
- FQS
Field Quality Support
- FR
1) Federal Register
2) Final Rulemaking
- FR-4
Most commonly used printed circuit board material. Composed of fiberglass cloth embedded in an epoxy resin. Flame Retardant.
- FRAD
Frame Relay Access Devices
- FRAM
Ferroelectric RAMtron memories
- Frame
In Back-End process, interface connecting the die to the printed circuit board.
- FRED
Fast Recovery Emitting Diode
- Friendly name
A name that substitutes for an IP address, for example, www.st.com instead of an IP address such as 157.45.60.81.
- Frequency
The number of times per second an alternating current goes through a complete cycle. Formerly expressed in cycles per second. Now expressed in Hertz (Hz).
- FRN
1) Federal Register Notice
2) Final Rulemaking Notice
- Front-End (FE)
In the semiconductor industry, Front-End corresponds to the first phase of the production cycle involving the manufacturing of circuits on a silicon wafer, followed by wafer testing (EWS) and the Back-End phase.
- FRPOM
Field Programmable Read-Only Memory
- FRR
FingerPrint Rejection Ratio
- FS
Feasibility Study
- FSA
1) Fabless Semiconductor Association
Organization representing "fabless" semiconductor companies that do not have their own wafer production facilities.
2) Field Sales Assistant
- FSAP
Field Sampling and Analysis Plan
- FSE
Field Sales Engineer
- FSF
Free Software Foundation
- FSK
Frequency Shift Key
- FSR
Field Sales Representative
- FT
1) Foot
2) Final Test
- FTA
Fault Tree Analysis
A system-analysis technique used to determine failure sequences and probabilities in complex systems.
- FTH
Fiber To Home
- FTO
Flexible Time Off
- FTP
File Transfer Protocol
A method for transferring files between computers.This is widely used on Internet and Intranet web sites.
- FTS
Final Test Specification
- FTSS
First Time Silicon Success
This is the percentage of designs performed in accordance to the first specifications without need for redesign.
- FTTC
Fiber To The Curb
- FTTF
Fiber To The Feeder
- FTTH
Fiber To The Home
- Fuel cell
A device for converting chemical energy into electrical energy.
- Fugitive emissions
Any gas, liquid, solid, mist, dust, or other material that escapes from a product or process and does not go through a chimney. Typical sources of fugitive emissions are leaks from flanges on pipes carrying volatile liquids, or emissions into a closed workplace which escape through windows.
- Full Motion Video
Video with normal movement like in a conventional TV set, rather than the slow motion seen in videotelephones. Full Motion Video (FMV) is used by Philips to describe the MPEG add-on which brings true video to CD-I.
- Full Pegging
The ability of the system to automatically trace requirements for a given component all the way to its ultimate end item, customer or contract number.
- Furnace
A piece of process equipment containing heating elements connected to precision controller. The controller allows a zone of constant temperature to be maintained to a tight tolerance.
- Fuse
An electrical circuit element that allows only some maximum level of current flow before it becomes an open circuit.
- Fuseable Link
A circuit element used in memory circuits as a programmable connection.
- Fusion
A reaction that results from combining nuclei of small atoms to form larger atoms. Joining the nuclei of two atoms requires atomic collisions at very high temperatures and pressures, with a significant release of heat energy. The process is the underlying force for the release of energy from stars and from the detonation of a hydrogen bomb. Also referred to as thermonuclear reaction. For many years now, work has been undertaken to harness fusion reactions to the controlled production of heat and thus electricity.
- FVC
Frequency to Voltage Converter
- FW
Flexiwatt
- FYI
For Your Information
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