Clarifying Language/Methodology Confusion


Engineers working on modern, large FPGA designs face multiple challenges: changing languages, methodologies and tools implementing them. The fact that many designs now contain both hardware and software only add to the confusion. This document tries to clarify the situation. Click here to read more. » read more

Rigid-Flex PCB Bending EM Analysis Using Clarity 3D Solver


Rigid-Flex PCBs have been used in many modern electronic devices (such as mobile phones, laptops, and wearables, among others), due to their form factor, light weight, and cost-effectiveness. Electromagnetic (EM) analysis of Rigid-Flex PCBs has always been a challenging task for many commercially available 3D numerical solver technologies (FEM and FDTD), due to the complexity in the 3D designs.... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 27


Single-molecule switches A group of researchers have demonstrated a single-molecule switch or electret, a technology that could one day enable a new class of non-volatile memory storage devices. Yale University, Nanjing University, Renmin University, Xiamen University, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have demonstrated a single-molecule electret with functional memory. Still in ... » read more

Performance and Power Tradeoffs At 7/5nm


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss power optimization with Oliver King, CTO at Moortec; João Geada, chief technologist at Ansys; Dino Toffolon, senior vice president of engineering at Synopsys; Bryan Bowyer, director of engineering at Mentor, a Siemens Business; Kiran Burli, senior director of marketing for Arm's Physical Design Group; Kam Kittrell, senior product management group d... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 27


Room-temp superconductivity Researchers at the University of Rochester, University of Nevada Las Vegas, and Intel created a material with superconducting properties at room temperature, the first time this has been observed. The researchers combined hydrogen with carbon and sulfur to photochemically synthesize simple organic-derived carbonaceous sulfur hydride in a diamond anvil cell, which... » read more

Rethinking The Scaling Mantra


What makes a new chip better than a previous version, or a competitor's version, has been changing for some time. In most cases the key metrics are still performance and power, but what works for one application or use case increasingly is different from another. Advancements are rarely tied just to process nodes these days. Even the most die-hard proponents of Moore's Law recognize that the... » read more

Si Hardmask (Si-HM), EUV And Zero Defects


The multilayer system used in lithography consists of a planarizing carbon layer beneath a hardmask etch-transferring layer and capped with a standard photoresist coating. In the past, Brewer Science has discussed in-depth how the multilayer system helped to extend ArF (193 nm) immersion lithography to be able to print and transfer ever-shrinking features, ensuring enough process window especia... » read more

Regaining The Edge In U.S. Chip Manufacturing


The United States is developing new strategies to prevent it from falling further behind Korea, Taiwan, and perhaps even China in semiconductor manufacturing, as trade tensions and national security concerns continue to grow. For years, the U.S. has been a leader in the development of new chip products like GPUs and microprocessors. But from a chip manufacturing standpoint, the U.S. is losin... » read more

Virtual Fabrication At 7/5/3nm


David Fried, vice president of computational products at Lam Research, digs into virtual fabrication at the most advanced nodes, how to create models using immature processes at new nodes, and how to fuse together data from multiple different silos. » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers AMD and Xilinx have entered into a definitive agreement for AMD to acquire Xilinx in an all-stock transaction valued at $35 billion. With the proposed deal, AMD will enter the FPGA business, putting it further in competition with Intel. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the AMD and Xilinx boards. The transaction is expected to close by the end of calendar year 2021. U... » read more

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