Full Steam Ahead For China Inc.


Were you in Shanghai this week? If not, you missed the biggest Semicon event in the world. Semicon China broke records this year. With more than 1,000 companies participating, and 570,000 square meters of exhibition space, Semicon China attracted more than 50,000 visitors, making it the largest Semicon event in the world. All the sessions we attended were standing room only. Key areas of fo... » read more

“Make in India”


By Bettina Weiss In recent weeks, I have been talking to SEMI members and other stakeholders about India. Some consider any semiconductor industry development in the country a dream. Others are looking more closely at current indicators of something real and tangible, trying to determine whether to get involved. The electronics sector in India will have to satisfy a huge demand growth... » read more

ATE: The Road Ahead


Watching the ATE market is like having a front-row seat to watch the semiconductor industry's ups and downs, with none of the hype to confuse you. So 2014 was a very good market for SoC test, and it likewise a good year for SoCs. As we head into the latter half of this year and into 2016, however, a projected downturn in the mobile arena will likely put a crimp in those earnings. The prob... » read more

Migrating Consumer Electronics To The Automotive Market With Calibre PERC


Tough reliability standards for electronic automotive safety systems ensure that integrated circuits (ICs) for these systems comply with demanding performance and reliability requirements. However, companies seeking to leverage their consumer-based intellectual property (IP) for use in automotive “infotainment” and “connected car” applications are finding that many of these performance ... » read more

Issues And Options At 5nm


While the foundries are ramping up their processes for the 16nm/14nm node, vendors are also busy developing technologies for 10nm and beyond. In fact, chipmakers are finalizing their 10nm process offerings, but they are still weighing the technology options for 7nm. And if that isn’t enough, IC makers are beginning to look at the options at 5nm and beyond. Today, chipmakers can see a p... » read more

Capacity Constraints And DFM At Mature Nodes


We’re witnessing an interesting phenomenon in the SoC segment of the semiconductor industry today. One might call it the “forced waterfall effect.” What I’m referring to is the tendency for production at semiconductor nodes older than the leading edge to be under long-term foundry capacity constraints. Normally this occurs with the “hot process node,” that is, the leading edge wh... » read more

Tech Talk: Swarm Boxes


Edward Lee, distinguished professor of electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley, shows off a prototype of a new class of IoT devices that fit into a category dubbed immobiles, and introduces a more meaningful terminology for the IoT: The Internet of Important Things. [youtube vid=4QLRfJ-fQKg] » read more

Blog Review: March 18


How do you quantify effort spent in FPGA verification? Mentor's Harry Foster tackles the question in his latest installment of the Wilson Research Group functional verification study. A new frontier of design challenges is rapidly emerging, according to ARM CEO Simon Segars. Cadence's Brian Fuller brings us his keynote address at CDNLive. Synopsys' Tushar Mattu is back with more on AXI VI... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: March 17


EUV source firm seeks help In 2012, a startup called Zplasma came out of stealth mode and introduced its first technology—a next-generation power source for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. But after much fanfare and hope, Zplasma has been unable to commercialize its EUV source technology. The company has also been unable to attract a development partner or outside funding. And t... » read more

System Bits: March 17


Symmetry in graphene growth According to Rice University researchers, what lies beneath growing islands of graphene is important to its properties. The team analyzed patterns of graphene – a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon – grown in a furnace via chemical vapor deposition and discovered that the geometric relationship between graphene and the substrate, the underlying material on whi... » read more

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