Apple’s First GaN Charger


It has been heavily rumored and anticipated for a few years now, but we have finally seen Apple make the switch to using gallium nitride (GaN) as the power transistor in one of their charging products: the 140 W charger for the new 16-inch MacBook Pro. As has been the case with many innovations in the past, Apple may not be the first, but when they do adopt a technology people take notice! A... » read more

A Broad Look Inside Advanced Packaging


Choon Lee, chief technology officer of JCET, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the semiconductor market, Moore’s Law, chiplets, fan-out packaging, and manufacturing issues. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. SE: Where are we in the semiconductor cycle right now? Lee: If you look at 2020, it was around 10% growth in the overall semiconductor industry. ... » read more

Accelerating Inference of Convolutional Neural Networks Using In-memory Computing


Abstract: "In-memory computing (IMC) is a non-von Neumann paradigm that has recently established itself as a promising approach for energy-efficient, high throughput hardware for deep learning applications. One prominent application of IMC is that of performing matrix-vector multiplication in (1) time complexity by mapping the synaptic weights of a neural-network layer to the devices of a... » read more

Zonal Architectures Play Key Role In Vehicle Security


The automotive ecosystem is starting to shift toward zonal architectures, making vehicle functionality less dependent on the underlying hardware and allowing more flexibility in what gets processed where. The impact of that shift is both broad and significant. For carmakers, it could lead to hardware consolidation and more options for failovers in case something goes wrong with any system in... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 17


In a podcast, Arm's Geof Wheelwright and Hilary Tam chat about the importance of efforts to decarbonize compute and how low-power compute can help ensure that the benefits of technology outweigh the environmental cost. Synopsys' Graham Allan and Vikas Gautam consider what's driving demand for HBM3, what's different from the previous HBM2E specification, unique design considerations, and how ... » read more

Chemistry Working For Lithography: The Marangoni-Effect-Based Single Layer For Enhanced Planarization


In the field of semiconductor manufacturing, there is still a continuous search for techniques to improve the Critical Dimension Uniformity (CDU) across the wafer. CDU improvement and general defectiveness reduction increase the industrial yield and guarantee high reliability standards. In the KrF Dual-Damascene module integration, at a lithographic level, deep trench planarization is mandatory... » read more

Heterogeneous Integration Using Organic Interposer Technology


As the costs of advanced node silicon have risen sharply with the 7 and 5-nanometer nodes, advanced packaging is coming to a crossroad where it is no longer fiscally prudent to pack all desired functionality into a single die. While single-die packages will still be around, the high-end market is shifting towards multiple-die packages to reduce overall costs and improve functionality. This shif... » read more

Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment And Measures To Protect The Earth’s Environment


Over the years, many countries on our planet have made significant efforts to develop their economies, achieving remarkable advancements in a wide variety of industries. However, the progress came with a great cost to the Earth’s environment. The destruction of nature has occurred frequently as a matter of course, to such an extent that in some regions it would hardly be possible to restore n... » read more

1.6 Tb/s Ethernet Challenges


Moving data at blazing fast speeds sounds good in theory, but it raises a number of design challenges. John Swanson, senior product marketing manager for high-performance computing digital IP at Synopsys, talks about the impact of next-generation Ethernet on switches, the types of data that need to be considered, the causes of data growth, and the size and structure of data centers, both in the... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 16


New hybrid EUV photoresist The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the winners for a recent entrepreneurial technology competition, including the development of a new EUV hybrid resist and an antibody therapeutics platform. The event, called the National Lab Accelerator Pitch Event, involved a competition among 11 researchers within the DOE’s national labs. Researchers pitched ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →