Blog Review: Apr. 30


Cadence’s Sree Parvathy points out how electrothermal analysis can help designers understand how temperature changes affect device behavior, such as mobility, threshold voltage, and saturation to mitigate potential failures due to thermal overstress. In a podcast, Siemens’ Conor Peick, Dale Tutt, and Mike Ellow chat about the transition towards software-defined products and why companies... » read more

Enhancing AI Datacenter PSUs With Hybrid-Si, SiC, And GaN Power Devices


The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) is driving an unprecedented demand for processing power in data centers, resulting in a surge in power demand at the rack level. With the existing data center rack sizes, the challenge is to deliver more power and efficiency in the same physical footprint apart from costs and cooling. To address this, Infineon has developed a range of hybrid powe... » read more

Flex PCBs Explained: From Materials to Applications Technical eBook


This ebook provides a comprehensive overview of flex PCBs, highlighting their unique benefits, materials used, common challenges, and how you can overcome them. Learn about the various applications of rigid-flex/flex PCBs in modern electronics and gain insights into the future of flex design. Read more here. Fig.1: Small Flex PCB.  Source: Cadence. » read more

Inter-Chiplet Interconnect Topologies On Organic And Glass Substrates


A new technical paper titled "FoldedHexaTorus: An Inter-Chiplet Interconnect Topology for Chiplet-based Systems using Organic and Glass Substrates" was published by researchers at ETH Zurich. Abstract "Chiplet-based systems are rapidly gaining traction in the market. Two packaging options for such systems are the established organic substrates and the emerging glass substrates. These substr... » read more

On-Chiplet Framework for Verifying Physical Security and Integrity of Adjacent Chiplets


A new technical paper titled "ChipletQuake: On-die Digital Impedance Sensing for Chiplet and Interposer Verification" was published by researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Abstract "The increasing complexity and cost of manufacturing monolithic chips have driven the semiconductor industry toward chiplet-based designs, where smaller and modular chiplets are integrated onto a singl... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Apr. 29


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=424 /] Find more semiconductor research papers here. » read more

How To Optimize Silicon Utilization To Improve PPA


In the semiconductor industry, optimizing Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) is a key challenge for designers and architects. Balancing these three factors often involves making trade-offs. Improving one variable might lead to sacrificing others. For example, boosting performance may result in increased power consumption and a larger silicon area, or some power-reducing techniques might reduce ... » read more

Research Bits: Apr. 29


Microchannels for two-phase cooling Researchers from the University of Tokyo propose cooling chips using microchannels built into the chips themselves. The method utilizes microfluidic channels to create a capillary structure through which coolant flows and a manifold distribution layer that controls the distribution of coolant. The structure enabled two-phase cooling through better managem... » read more

TSMC Tech Symposium 2025


TSMC held its North America Technology Symposium on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 at the Santa Clara Convention Center and presented update information on its relentless march to ever finer geometries and higher levels of scaling. Figure 1, below, shows TSMC’s latest advanced technology roadmap. Compared to the roadmap presented at last year’s tech symposium, the new roadmap shows the “Hig... » read more

Security Power Requirements Are Growing


Determining how much power to budget for security in a chip design is a complex calculation. It starts with a risk assessment of the cost of a breach and the number of possible attack vectors, and whether security is active or passive. Different forms of root of trust and cryptography have different power costs. Different systems could require tradeoffs between performance and security, whic... » read more

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