December 2011 - Page 2 of 4 - Semiconductor Engineering


What’s Really Going On?


At the end of the year it’s common to make predictions about what’s coming next year or to look back at the events that have transpired over the past 12 months. It’s becoming more difficult to do both. To begin with, there’s the question of re-aggregation or disaggregation. While most industries swing back and forth between aggregation and disaggregation, that process has become inc... » read more

After The Ball Drops


Growing up in New York City leaves lasting memories. The coming holiday season evokes some strong ones. The Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center is an example. Christmas always seemed to radiate in all directions from that huge tree perched above the ice skating rink behind Radio City Music Hall. And then there was the ball dropping on New Year’s Eve in Times Square. For the most part, New Yo... » read more

To Cut or Not To Cut? That is the Double Patterning Question


By David Abercrombie The challenges of double pattering (DP)-based design are looming large to those customers starting to move to the 20 nm technology node. Of course, much of the fear and trepidation is simply due to it being something new to learn, and the sense of risk that a move into the unknown can instill. Regardless of emotions involved, DP does place new restrictions on physical la... » read more

All I Want For Christmas … Is A Census Of Software Developers!


By Frank SchirrmeisterThe year is almost over and in my homeland of Germany, kids are preparing to appease Santa Claus and Knecht Ruprecht (the guy who gives you a rod if you misbehaved during the year) with a Christmas rhyme. I remember that as a kid, I was at one point reciting from memory the second chapter from the book of Luke: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census... » read more

Executive Briefing: The End Of CMOS?


Steve Longoria, senior vice president of Soitec, talks with System-Level Design about why silicon on insulator has suddenly become essential to semiconductor manufacturing and what it will mean for Moore's Law. [youtube vid=kNl1RSEpqKc] » read more

Looking Back To The Future


By Frank Ferro As I'm reading through year-end articles on the top technologies of 2011, along with predictions of what's hot for 2012, I naturally start to reflect on the emerging technologies for the year ahead—and will anyone see them coming? Undoubtedly this was another year where rapid technology adoption changed our behavior throughout the day. It was the year of the tablet, the sma... » read more

Experts At The Table: Stacked Die And The Supply Chain


By Ed Sperling Semiconductor Manufacturing & Design sat down to discuss the effects of stacking die on the supply chain with Stephen Pateras, production marketing director for silicon test at Mentor Graphics; Javier DeLaCruz, director of manufacturing technology at eSilicon; Colin Baldwin, director of marketing at Open-Silicon; Charles Woychik, director of marketing and technical analysis ... » read more

Time For FD-SOI?


Paul Boudre, COO of Soitec, talks with Semiconductor Manufacturing & Design about why SOI has suddenly become so interesting in semiconductor manufacturing and how it will affect the move to FinFETs. [youtube vid=DO9zfrinbOg] » read more

MEMS Oscillators Market News – Accelerating Adoption of silicon MEMS timing


By Tony Massimini Recently there have been two major announcements in the MEMS Oscillator market. Market leader SiTime breaks into the high-precision OCXO timing with Stratum 3 compliant solutions. Integrated Device Technology jumps into the MEMS oscillator market with a piezoelectric MEMS resonator. SiTime has introduced the SiT5301 and SiT5302 which address the highest performance applica... » read more

Credit Deficit


One of the common complaints from around the semiconductor industry is that design teams don’t get recognized. Appreciation comes readily to brands such as Apple or Samsung, but it is several levels of abstraction removed from the companies that develop the processors, let alone the tools, materials, methodologies or processes that make those processors possible. Worse, energy efficiency ... » read more

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