Data Becomes Key For Next-Gen Chips


Data has become vital to understanding the useful life of a semiconductor — and the knowledge gleaned is key to staying competitive beyond Moore’s Law. What's changed is a growing reliance earlier in the design cycle on multiple sources of data, including some from further right in the design-through-manufacturing flow. While this holistic approach may seem logical enough, the semiconduc... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: July 6


Luminosity record Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) has regained the world’s record for the highest luminosity achieved in a particle accelerator, beating the previous mark by CERN. KEK achieved the record in the SuperKEKB, a giant storage ring that combines an electron-positron collider with an advanced detector. This system is designed to explore fundamental ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 6


Configurable photonics Researchers from the University of Southampton developed a configurable/one-time programmable silicon photonic circuit that could reduce production costs by allowing a generic optical circuit to be fabricated in bulk and then later programmed for specific applications such as communications systems, LIDAR circuits or computing applications. Additionally, once programmed,... » read more

Chip Reliability Vs. Cost


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the cost, reliability and security with Simon Segars, CEO of Arm; Joseph Sawicki, executive vice president of IC EDA at Mentor, a Siemens Business; Raik Brinkmann, CEO of OneSpin Solutions; Babak Taheri, CEO of Silvaco; John Kibarian, CEO of PDF Solutions; and Prakash Narain, CEO of Real Intent. What follows are excerpts of that virtual conversation... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fab tools, packaging/test VLSI Research has released its 200mm wafer fab equipment (WFE) market share figures for 2019. The top three suppliers--Applied Materials, TEL, and ASML—saw growth in the 2019 200mm WFE business. Lam Research was in fourth place, followed by KLA and Canon. In total, 200mm wafer fab equipment sales were $3.6 billion in 2019, declining 5% from 2018, according to the fi... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Galaxy Semiconductor re-established with the planned acquisition of the Quantix Business assets from Mentor, a Siemens business. The software products Galaxy is acquiring focus on yield optimization, device characterization, and reliability improvement. Galaxy was initially founded in 1998; the Galway, Ireland-based company was then acquired by Mentor Graphics in 2016. The re-established compan... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


The American Foundries Act, a bipartisan initiative to revive U.S. leadership in the global microelectronics sector, was announced by U.S. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer from New York. “The economic and national security risks posed by relying too heavily on foreign semiconductor suppliers cannot be ignored, and Upstate New York, which has a robust semiconductor sector, is the perfect place... » read more

Mitigating The Effects Of Radiation On Advanced Automotive ICs


The safety considerations in an automotive IC application have similarities to what is seen in other safety critical industries, such as the avionics, space, and industrial sectors. ISO 26262 is the state-of-the-art safety standard guiding the safety activities and work products required for electronics deployed in an automotive system. ISO 26262 requires that a design be protected from the eff... » read more

Automotive Gateway IP Enabling Scalable Automotive Platforms


As automakers introduce new electronic platforms, the system architectures are changing from distributed ECUs to integrated domain compute modules. This evolution, along with the increased number and types of sensors for ADAS systems, is having a big impact on the automotive Ethernet network and gateway function. Automotive Ethernet and gateways do more than support mobile connectivity, they en... » read more

An Automotive Value Chain In Flux


When companies view suppliers from inside their specialized niches, it is tempting to imagine the business world will continue as-is, with just minimal improvements each year. But in the automotive value chain, this no longer holds. The rapid pace of innovation around intelligent systems in cars is disrupting the business flow. Back in simpler times, semiconductor companies would work with Tier... » read more

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