Blog Review: March 24


Arm's Brian Cline points to a project with GlobalFoundries to demonstrate the feasibility and readiness of high-density, face-to-face, wafer-bonded 3D stacking technologies for high performance, energy-efficient designs. Synopsys' Taylor Armerding warns that while supply chain security risks aren't new, the recent SolarWinds breach should make everyone pay much more attention to dependencies... » read more

Accelerate Custom Layout Using Custom Compiler’s User-Defined Device (UDD)


In this 7th video of the series, Kai Wang, Director of Engineering at Synopsys, discusses in-design electrical analysis, and why it is critical to use signoff engines to check and fix resistance, capacitance and electromigration issues during layout. Click here to access this video whitepaper. » read more

Customized Micro-Benchmarks For HW/SW Performance


Raw performance used to be the main focus of benchmarks, but they may have outlived their usefulness for many applications. Dana McCarty, vice president of sales and marketing for AI Inference Products at Flex Logix, talks about why companies need to develop and utilize their own specific models to accurately gauge hardware and software performance, which can be slowed by bottlenecks in I/O and... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: March 23


Measuring acceleration The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a new and better way to measure acceleration. NIST has developed an optomechanical accelerometer, a technology that has more resolution and bandwidth than conventional accelerometers. Optomechanical accelerometers uses laser light of a known frequency to measure acceleration. With the technology, ... » read more

Semiconductor CapEx To Grow 13.0% In 2021


Semiconductor capital expenditures grew 9.2% in 2020 to US$112.1 billion. This is $14.1 billion higher than our spring 2020 forecast, and $3.2 billion higher than our fall 2020 forecast. As shown in the graph below, the total 2020 CapEx was $9.4 billion larger than the $102.7 billion spent in 2019. Semico is forecasting 2021 CapEx to reach $127 billion, an increase of 13.0%. Source: Semico... » read more

Greetings From Mars


Hello Mars. Congratulations to the amazing engineers and scientists at NASA and Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL) for a successful touchdown on the Mars Jezero Crater. In July 2020, NASA launched the Perseverance rover mission, which sought to find signs of habitable conditions, search for biosignatures, and collect samples for future Mars-sample-return missions and human expeditions. Seven months l... » read more

Washington Takes Key Steps to Bolster U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturing And Supply Chains


Recent semiconductor supply chain constraints have drawn the attention of Washington policymakers at every level. Exasperated by the global pandemic, customers of semiconductor manufacturers have sounded the alarm about the chip shortage and the downstream consequences for end-user companies and consumers. Global automakers have suffered the brunt of the impact, shuttering factories and slashin... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: March 23


Metasurface for optical media Researchers at Purdue University proposed a new way to store information in optical media, such as CDs and DVDs, that could improve both storage capacity and read times. The development focuses on encoding information in the angular position of tiny antennas, allowing them to store more data per unit area. "The storage capacity greatly increases because it is o... » read more

EUV Pellicles Finally Ready


After a period of delays, EUV pellicles are emerging and becoming a requirement in high-volume production of critical chips. At the same time, the pellicle landscape for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is changing. ASML, the sole supplier of EUV pellicles, is transferring the assembly and distribution of these products to Mitsui. Others are also developing pellicles for EUV, a next-gen... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs Micron will cease development of 3D XPoint, a next-generation memory technology. Micron also plans to sell a fab that produces 3D XPoint chips. For some time, Intel and Micron have co-developed 3D XPoint, which is based on phase-change memory technology. Intel sells solid-state storage drives (SSDs) using 3D XPoint. In a fab located in Utah, Micron is producing this memo... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →