February 2016 - Page 3 of 10 - Semiconductor Engineering


Thermal Characterization of Complex Electronics


This whitepaper describes the role of thermal transient measurement to characterize semiconductor thermal behavior. It focuses on the value measurement derived structure functions provide through interpretation of the heat flow path inside a package for use in thermal characterization, failure diagnosis, and improving simulation thermal model accuracy. Structure functions transform thermal t... » read more

Optimizing DDR Memory Subsystem Efficiency


The memory subsystem sits at the core of a System-on-Chip (SoC) platform and can make all the difference between a well-designed system meeting its performance requirements and a system that delivers poor performance, or even fails to operate correctly. State-of-the-art DDR memory controllers use advanced arbitration and scheduling policies to optimize DDR memory efficiency. At the same time, t... » read more

Complete Systems Modeling And Simulation For Complex Product Development


As products in the marketplace incorporate more and more complexity, the product design process must keep pace to ensure safe, efficient and reliable integration of complicated systems, subsystems and components. Few products today involve a mere single physics; most encompass multidisciplinary behaviors and interactions (with subsequent, sometimes unpredictable, cause and effect). Though simul... » read more

An Architecture Synthesis Platform For Rapidly Evolving SoC Designs


Modern System-on-Chip (SoC) architects are faced with a number of serious challenges. First, the number of Semiconductor Intellectual Property (IP) blocks in SoC designs is growing continuously and increasing design complexity. With IP design reuse becoming more common, the mixing and matching of IP components is further compounding design complexity. Second, sophisticated SoC applications are ... » read more

Blog Review: Feb. 24


Synopsys' Graham Etchells digs through the toolbox and finds that schematic PCells can be vital in helping layout engineers tackle FinFET complexity. Cadence's Paul McLellan looks at two techniques to test the increasing number of digital gates on an automotive chip with only two pins. In the latest PCB Tech Talk Podcast, Mentor's John McMillan discusses where collaboration with MCAD fits... » read more

Tech Talk: ISO 26262


Arteris' Kurt Shuler talks about the automotive design standard, how it applies to semiconductors, and where engineers run into problems. » read more

What’s Next For DRAM?


The DRAM business has always been challenging. Over the years, DRAM suppliers have experienced a number of boom and bust cycles in a competitive landscape. But now, the industry faces a cloudy, if not an uncertain, future. On one front, for example, [getkc id="93" kc_name="DRAM"] vendors face a downturn amid a capacity glut and falling product prices in 2016. But despite the business chal... » read more

Managing Validation And Verification Abstract Activities For DO-254


This paper provides an overview of the Validation and Verification (V & V) process and its associated activities as described in RTCA/DO-254. With the growing size and complexity of today’s FPGAs, managing V & V activities is becoming difficult and time-consuming. This paper presents a list of recommended features, methodologies and capabilities that must be supported by a tool to manage V & ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 23


EUV resist venture JSR and Imec have signed a deal to form a joint venture to develop resists for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The new company, dubbed EUV Resist Manufacturing & Qualification Center NV, is incorporated with a majority of the total shares held by JSR Micro NV. As EUV technology advances, the IC industry is putting pressure on materials suppliers and other vendo... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 23


Making electrons act like liquid While electrical resistance is a simple concept in that rather like friction slowing down an object rolling on a surface, resistance slows the flow of electrons through a conductive material, and now, MIT professor of physics Leonid Levitov and Gregory Falkovich, a professor at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science have found that electrons can sometimes tur... » read more

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