Blog Review: Dec. 20

Synopsys’ Twan Korthorst explains how PDKs can help accelerate the photonic IC design process by offering building blocks such as several types of waveguides, passive devices like splitters, combiners, and filters, along with active devices such as phase shifters, detectors, semiconductor optical amplifiers, and lasers.

Siemens EDA’s Harry Foster examines IC and ASIC design trends, including indications of growing design complexity and an increase in projects working on designs less than 1M gates for smaller sensor chips for IoT and automotive devices.

Cadence’s Ben Gu finds that the concept of software-defined vehicles joins the adoption of electrified powertrains and a shift towards autonomy in providing carmakers the opportunity to reimagine and redefine the entire automotive experience.

Arm’s Daniel Owens and Avery Design Systems’ Tzi Yang Shao argue that virtual platform co-simulation can accelerate SoC verification by integrating Fast Models, verification IP, and the device under test.

Renesas’ Sung Kim introduces a server chipset for next-generation DIMM applications based on Multiplexer Combined Ranks DIMM technology that aims to alleviate the bottleneck of memory bandwidth.

Ansys’ Shawn Carpenter and Modelithics’ Chris DeMartino find that building RF filters becomes even more challenging at higher frequencies because it takes great precision to determine the specific combination of values and components needed to effectively design a filter to function.

The ESD Alliance’s Bob Smith chats with Prakash Narain of Real Intent about the trend toward early functional verification of chip designs and what’s new in static sign-off.

And catch up on the blogs featured in the latest Manufacturing, Packaging & Materials newsletter:

Amkor’s Chiung Lee, Weilung Lu, and Adrian Arcedera examine optical sensor packaging standardization for a growing market.

Coventor’s Arnaud Parent explains how to achieve the accuracy of a standard Finite Element model within practical simulation times using compact models.

Nova’s Ilya Osherov shows how combining spectral measurements and interferometry improves metrology.

SEMI’s Ashley Huang reports that renewable energy and alternative materials will be key in reducing chip industry carbon emissions.