Rethinking Watermark: Providing Proof of IP Ownership in Modern SoCs


Abstract "Intellectual property (IP) cores are essential to creating modern system-on-chips (SoCs). Protecting the IPs deployed in modern SoCs has become more difficult as the IP houses have been established across the globe over the past three decades. The threat posed by IP piracy and overuse has been a topic of research for the past decade or so and has led to creation of a field called wat... » read more

Interfacial ferroelectricity in marginally twisted 2D semiconductors


Abstract "Twisted heterostructures of two-dimensional crystals offer almost unlimited scope for the design of new metamaterials. Here we demonstrate a room temperature ferroelectric semiconductor that is assembled using mono- or few-layer MoS2. These van der Waals heterostructures feature broken inversion symmetry, which, together with the asymmetry of atomic arrangement at the interface of tw... » read more

Software-Driven and System-Level Tests Drive Chip Quality


Traditional semiconductor testing typically involves tests executed by automatic test equipment (ATE). But engineers are beginning to favor an additional late-test pass that tests systems-on-chip (SoCs) in a system context in order to catch design issues prior to end-product assembly. “System-level test (SLT) gives a high-volume environment where you can test the hardware and software toge... » read more

Addressing The ABF Substrate Shortage With In-Line Monitoring


Ajinomoto build-up film (ABF) substrate has been a key component in chip manufacturing since its introduction shortly before the turn of the millennium. Substrates made with Ajinomoto build-up film – an electrical insulator designed for complex circuits – are found in PCs, routers, base stations, and servers. Looking ahead, the ABF substrate market will continue to grow, with revenue up ... » read more

A Practical Approach To DFT For Large SoCs And AI Architectures, Part II


By Rahul Singhal and Giri Podichetty Part I of this article discusses the design-for-test (DFT) challenges of AI designs and strategies to address them at the die level. This part focuses on the test requirements of AI chips that integrate multiple dies and memories on the same package. Why 2.5D/3D chiplet-based designs for AI SoCs? Many semiconductor companies are adopting chiplet-based d... » read more

Auto Chipmakers Dig Down To 10ppb


How do engineers deliver 10 defective parts per billion (Dppb) to auto makers if they only screen 1 million parts per year? Answer: By comprehending failure mechanisms and proactively screening for them. Modern automobiles contain nearly 1,000 ICs that must perform over the vehicle’s life (15 years). This drives quality expectations ever higher. While 10 Dppm used to be a solid benchmark, ... » read more

Enabling Silicon Lifecycle Solutions


The concepts of product lifecycle management (PLM) should be familiar, although the semiconductor industry has yet to adopt a system for managing the entire lifecycle of a product from inception through design, realization, deployment, and field service, right through to end-of-life activities such as final disposal. Now, a combination of business and technical pressures is bringing PLM capabil... » read more

Improving Performance And Simplifying Coding With XY Memory’s Implicit Parallelism


Instruction-level Parallelism (ILP) refers to design techniques that enable more than one RISC instruction to be executed simultaneously in the same instruction, which boosts processor performance by increasing the amount of work done in a given time interval, thereby increasing the throughput. This parallelism can be explicit, where each additional instruction is explicitly part of the instruc... » read more

Weaving Digital Threads Into A Global Fabric Of Enterprise Knowledge


How smart manufacturing software provides visibility and control of all phases of the semiconductor manufacturing process. Run-to-run (R2R) automated process control gathers critical data from each production run and automatically adjusts process parameters for the next run based on sophisticated models of process performance. Click here to read more. » read more

HBM, Nanosheet FETs Drive X-ray Fab Use


Paul Ryan, vice president and general manager of Bruker’s X-ray Business, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss the movement of x-ray metrology into manufacturing to better control nanosheet film stacks and solder bump quality. SE: Where are you seeing the greatest growth right now, and what are the critical drivers for your technology from the application side? Ryan: One b... » read more

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