John Ferguson

  (all posts)
John Ferguson is the product management director for Calibre nmDRC applications at Siemens Digital Industries Software. He has extensive experience in physical verification, including the extension of traditional physical design and verification techniques to such fields as 3DIC and package layout, silicon photonics, quantum computing, and more. Ferguson holds several patents and has authored multiple industry publications. He earned a B.Sc. degree in Physics from McGill University, an M.Sc. in Applied Physics from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology.

Author's Latest Posts

Automated Multiphysics For Successful 3D-IC Design
By John Ferguson - 02 Apr, 2026 - Comments: 0

By John Ferguson and Sheltha Nolke For design teams adopting 3D-IC architectures, the relentless pursuit of performance and reliability brings a familiar, yet increasingly complex, set of challenges: how do we manage power, dissipate heat and navigate the intricate dance of physics within these stacked architectures? While 3D-ICs offer significant advantages in size, performance, power effic... » read more

Managing Complexity: Evolving Approaches To Design Rule Checking In Modern IC Design
By John Ferguson - 23 Dec, 2025 - Comments: 0

As integrated circuit (IC) designs have grown in complexity, scale and speed requirements, design rule checking (DRC) has evolved from a routine step into a critical pillar of successful tapeouts. Foundry rules, shrinking geometries and advanced patterning have increased both the engineering effort and computational overhead needed for verification. Today, DRC isn’t just about sign-off—it�... » read more

How Multiphysics Is Powering The Future Of 3D-ICs
By John Ferguson - 29 Sep, 2025 - Comments: 0

It’s surprising to learn that the idea of 3D integrated circuits (3D ICs) has been kicking around for over sixty years. Not long after the first MOS IC emerged in 1960, researchers were already thinking vertically. By 1983, Fujitsu manufactured the first 3D IC prototype using through-silicon via (TSV) technology, using laser beam recrystallization. That’s a long time for a good idea to catc... » read more

Reliability On The Road: Multiphysics Design For Automotive 3D-ICs
By John Ferguson - 07 Nov, 2024 - Comments: 0

Anyone who has purchased a car over the past decade knows that there has been a huge increase in the amount of compute processing involved in today’s modern automotive industry. Advanced chips for diagnostics and entertainment as well as logic associated with advanced sensor technology and automated assist features have quickly become key requirements that drivers rely on every day to ensure ... » read more

The 3D-IC Multiphysics Challenge Dictates A Shift-Left Strategy
By John Ferguson - 25 Apr, 2024 - Comments: 0

As the industry marches forward in a 3D-IC centric design approach (figure 1), we are facing a new problem. Sometimes referred to as “electro-thermal” or “electro-thermo-mechanical,” it really is the confluence of multiple forms of physics exerting impacts on both the physical manufacture and structure of these multi-die designs and their electrical behavior. Fig. 1: Illustration... » read more

Help, 3D-IC Is Stuck In A Country Song
By John Ferguson - 30 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 0

Every time I focus on three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuit (IC) design, I start hearing the Luke Bryan song “Rain Makes Corn, Corn Makes Whiskey.” Not because I need a strong drink to work with 3D-IC designs, but because there is a similar, although slightly more complicated, series of cause and effect issues that impact 3D-ICs. Pushing electrons through very thin metal wires and switc... » read more

Let’s Do The (IC Design) Time Warp Again
By John Ferguson - 26 Oct, 2023 - Comments: 0

For the most part, we’ve all been doing integrated circuit (IC) and system-on-chip (SoC) layout the same way for decades. Designers put together the design, be it intellectual property (IP), block, or full chip, then begin running physical verification. For design rule checking (DRC), this process consists of running all appropriate rule checks for the component on all available layouts. The ... » read more

The Process Design Kit: Protecting Design Know-How
By John Ferguson - 08 Nov, 2018 - Comments: 2

Once upon a time, integrated circuits (ICs) were built by the same companies that designed them. The design of an IC was tightly integrated with the manufacturing processes available within each company. In these days, when designs contained hundreds of transistors, companies modeled each feature in an IC at a first principles level, meaning each transistor or fundamental device was analyzed an... » read more

  • Sponsors

About

Navigation

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2013-2026 SMG   |  Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy