Author's Latest Posts


Fixing Security Holes


Connected devices can do everything from save lives to improve the quality of life. They also destroy that quality or cause harm if these things or systems of things are not secure. Security is a complex multi-level problem. It spans the entire seven-layer OSI communication stack, as well as the software that is used to run, manage and operate hardware. And it needs to be dealt with from mul... » read more

In An Election Year: OTP For IoT


Borrowing from this year’s hottest topic –– the Presidential Election –– let’s nominate one-time programmable (OTP) embedded memory for the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s sure to be the winner for any number of reasons, but most likely it is because of its built-in security features. As a memory-on-chip technology, antifuse OTP is paving the way for IoT designers to come up with n... » read more

The Growing Need For OTP


Historically, when someone from our industry uses the acronym OTP, or one-time programmable, they think of eFuse, invented by IBM in 2004.  Using electromigration, IBM was able to program a fuse without damaging other parts of the chip. In this way, fuses could dynamically alter the configuration of a chip after it was manufactured. Applications range from analog trimming and calibration to re... » read more

Industrial Electronics Gain Greater Manufacturing Flexibility With Embedded Memory


While IoT continues to capture the semiconductor industry’s collective imagination, not to be overlooked is the industrial electronics market. Just consider the wide swath industrial electronics cuts. It could be anything related to electrical equipment in an industrial setting, and includes everything from control systems, instrumentation, mechanicals and diagnostics to signal processing and... » read more