Using AI/ML To Minimize IR Drop


IR drop is becoming a much bigger problem as technology nodes scale and more components are packed into advanced packages. This is partly a result of physics, but it's also the result of how the design flow is structured. In most cases, AI/ML can help. The underlying problem is that moving to advanced process nodes, and now 3D-ICs, is driving current densities higher, while the power envelop... » read more

Next-Gen Power Integrity Challenges


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss power integrity challenges and best practices in designs at 7nm and below, and in 2.5D and 3D-IC packages, with Chip Stratakos, partner, physical design at Microsoft; Mohit Jain, principal engineer at Qualcomm; Thomas Quan, director at TSMC; and Murat Becer, vice president at Ansys. What follows are excerpts of that conversatio... » read more

Taming Corner Explosion In Complex Chips


There is a tenuous balance between the number of corners a design team must consider, the cost of analysis, and the margins they insert to deal with them, but that tradeoff is becoming a lot more difficult. If too many corners of a chip are explored, it might never see production. If not enough corners are explored, it could reduce yield. And if too much margin is added, the device may not be c... » read more

On-Chip Power Distribution Modeling Becomes Essential Below 7nm


Modeling power distribution in SoCs is becoming increasingly important at each new node and in 3D-ICs, where tolerances involving power are much tighter and any mistake can cause functional failures. At mature nodes, where there is more metal, power problems continue to be rare. But at advanced nodes, where chips are running at higher frequencies and still consuming the same or greater power... » read more

Minimizing EM/IR Impacts On IC Design Reliability And Performance


By Joel Mercier and Karen Chow As technologies and foundry process nodes continue to advance, it gets more difficult to design and verify integrated circuits (ICs). The challenges become even more apparent in 5nm and below nodes, and as the industry moves away from fin field-effect transistor (finFET) and into gate-all-around field-effect transistor (GAAFET) technologies. There are many prob... » read more

Overcoming The Growing Challenge Of Dynamic IR-Drop


IR-drop has always been somewhat of an issue in chip design; voltage decreases as current travels along any path with any resistance. Ohm’s Law is likely the first thing that every electrical engineer learns. But the challenges related to IR-drop (sometimes called voltage drop) have increased considerably in recent years, especially the dynamic IR-drop in the power/ground grid as circuits swi... » read more

Is Common Resistance Affecting Your Analog Design Reliability And Performance?


Integrated circuit (IC) design reliability has always been important and essential to market success. After all, if no one could count on your product to operate as designed, and for as long as intended, there wouldn’t be many buyers! However, given the increase in the types and complexity of design applications, coupled with the increasing technological challenge of manufacturing at advance... » read more

Why Chips Die


Semiconductor devices contain hundreds of millions of transistors operating at extreme temperatures and in hostile environments, so it should come as no surprise that many of these devices fail to operate as expected or have a finite lifetime. Some devices never make it out of the lab and many others die in the fab. It is hoped that most devices released into products will survive until they be... » read more

Designers Face Growing Problems With On-Chip Power Distribution


The technology evolution in semiconductor manufacturing has led to chips with ever-higher power densities, which is leading to serious problems with on-chip power distribution. Specifically, the problems surrounding voltage drop—or IR drop (from V=IxR)—have become so acute that we have seen multiple companies starting to get back dead silicon from the fab. For example, a recent 7nm chip ... » read more

Tech Talk: 7nm Process Variation


Ankur Gupta, director of field applications at ANSYS, discusses process variation and the problems it can cause at 10/7nm and beyond. https://youtu.be/WHNjFr1Da6s » read more

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