Liz Allan

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Liz Allan is an associate editor at Semiconductor Engineering.

Author's Latest Posts

Mobile Chip Challenges In The AI Era
By Liz Allan - 05 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

Leading smart phone vendors are struggling to keep pace with the rising compute and power demands of localized generative AI, standard phone functions, and the need to move more data back and forth between handsets and the cloud. In addition to edge functions, such as facial recognition and other on-device apps, phones must accommodate a continuous stream of new communications protocols, and... » read more

AR/VR Glasses Taking Shape With New Chips
By Liz Allan - 05 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

More augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) wearables are coming, but how they are connected, and where image and other data is processed, are still in flux. Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, for example, look like classic eyeglasses, but they rely on a tethered smart phone for such functions as taking pictures, AI voice assistance, and object identification. In contrast... » read more

Security Risks Mount For Aerospace, Defense Applications
By Liz Allan - 12 May, 2025 - Comments: 1

Supply chain and hardware security vulnerabilities affect all industries, but they pose additional risks for the defense sector. Over-manufacturing and re-manufacturing allow chips from friendly nations to end up in the weapons of adversaries. And side-channel attacks such as power analysis or fault injection, as well as internet-based distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, provide a mea... » read more

Radiation, Temperature, Power Challenges For Chips In Space
By Liz Allan - 07 May, 2025 - Comments: 0

Mission-critical hardware used in space is not supposed to fail at all, because lives may be lost in addition to resources, availability, performance, and budgets. For space applications, failure can occur due to a range of factors, including the weather on the day of launch, human error, environmental conditions, unexpected or unknown hazards and degradation of parts to chemical factors, aging... » read more

Extra Safety Measures Needed For Aerospace ICs
By Liz Allan - 01 May, 2025 - Comments: 0

Aerospace safety requirements and standards vary depending on whether a spacecraft is manned or unmanned, and how crucial the mission is. The defense contractors designing these spacecraft take various approaches to functional safety based on how critical a component is for the mission to succeed. While losing a few images during an Earth-bound observation may not matter, losing a satellite ... » read more

Stakes Are High For Aerospace, Defense IC Designs
By Liz Allan - 03 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 0

Chips destined for the skies or armed forces need extra everything. They require higher layers of abstraction to simulate all the moving parts in the field, high-reliability testing for harsh environments, in addition to system-level test. They also need radiation-hardening and ceramic materials for space, extra safety layers, and advanced security techniques. As in the automotive sector, th... » read more

Wearable Connectivity, AI Enable New Use Cases
By Liz Allan - 06 Mar, 2025 - Comments: 0

The sensing and processing technology used in smart phones, watches, and rings is starting to be being deployed in a wide variety of wearable devices, ranging from those that fill the gap between sports and med tech, to haptic devices to assist the visually impaired and AR/VR glasses. Emerging applications include payment, building, and factory wearables. Most of these devices process signal... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Feb. 25
By Liz Allan - 25 Feb, 2025 - Comments: 0

New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=408 /] Find all technical papers here. » read more

Med Tech Morphs Into Consumer Wearables
By Liz Allan - 06 Feb, 2025 - Comments: 0

Doctors have been using advanced technology for years, but the growing trend is for consumers to use devices at home and have direct access to their data. Watches and rings that were once primarily used for counting steps or registering sleep patterns can now read blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen, body temperature, and other early signs of illness. Meanwhile, various patches are under d... » read more

Universities Augment Engineering Curricula To Boost Employability
By Liz Allan - 05 Feb, 2025 - Comments: 0

Increasing numbers of universities are offering semiconductor courses in their engineering programs, and also in math, physics, and business degrees. Most universities now offer a broad foundation so students can pivot to other industries during cyclical downturns, or when technology and science create entirely new and potentially lucrative opportunities, such as generative AI, advanced pack... » read more

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