Understanding SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping)


Amol Borkar, senior product manager for AI and computer vision at Cadence, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about mapping and tracking the movement of an object in a scene, how to identify key corners in a frame, how probabilities of accuracy fit into the picture, how noise can affect that, and how to improve the performance and reduce power in these systems. » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 18


Molecular layer etch The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has made new advances in the field of molecular layer etching or etch (MLE). MLE is related to atomic layer etch (ALE). Used in the semiconductor industry, ALE selectively removes targeted materials at the atomic scale without damaging other parts of the structure. ALE is related to atomic layer deposition... » read more

EDA In The Cloud


Michael White, director of product marketing for Calibre physical verification at Mentor, a Siemens Business, looks at the growing compute requirements at 7, 5 and 3nm, why the cloud looks increasingly attractive from a security and capacity standpoint, and how the cloud as well as new lithography will affect the cost and complexity of developing new chips. » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 18


Cryogenic memory Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrated a new cryogenic memory cell circuit design based on coupled arrays of Josephson junctions. Such a memory could help enable exascale and quantum computing. The cells are designed to operate in super cold temperatures and were tested at just 4 Kelvin above absolute zero, about minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit. At these col... » read more

Development Of An Extremely High Thermal Conductivity TIM For Large Electronics Packages In 4th Industrial Revolution Era


The capability and diversity of high-performance microprocessors is increasing with each process technology generation to meet increasing application demands. The cooling designs for these chips must deal with larger temperature gradients across the die than previous generations. Dissipation of the thermal energy from heat generating parts to a heat sink via conduction occurs through a thermal ... » read more

Automotive Chip Design Workflow


Stewart Williams, senior technical marketing manager at Synopsys, talks about the consolidation of chips in a vehicle and the impact of 7/5nm on automotive SoC design, how to trade off power, performance, area and reliability, and how ISO 26262 impacts those variables. » read more

Reliability In Automotive Chips


Roland Jancke, head of department for design methodology at Fraunhofer IIS’ Engineering of Adaptive Systems Division, looks at how to ensure that chips used in cars are reliable over extended periods of use, how mission profiles vary depending upon where they are used, and why it’s important to understand what chips developed at the latest nodes can really be used for and how they will be ... » read more

NTSB Releases Report On 2018 Silicon Valley Tesla Autopilot Fatal Accident


NTSB has just released a new report on the March 23, 2018 Tesla accident in Mountain View, CA.  The 2017 Tesla Model X P100D electric-powered passenger car operated with advanced driver assistance (ADAS) features – a feature  Tesla calls “autopilot” – departed  the southbound travel lanes of Highway 101 and struck a previously damaged crash attenuator. The driver, the sole occupant o... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs IC Insights has released its rankings of the 25 largest wafer capacity leaders in terms of monthly installed capacity in 200mm-equivalents as of December 2019. Samsung was in first place, followed by TSMC, Micron, SK Hynix, and Kioxia, formerly Toshiba Memory, according to IC Insights. Combined capacity of the top five companies represented 53% of total global wafer capa... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Processors Arm rolled out a micro neural processing unit that, when combined with its newest microcontroller, can increase machine learning performance by up to 480 times. The company is aiming the MCU and co-processor across a wide swath of applications. Worth noting is that Arm calls its Cortex-M55 an AI-capable processor, rather than a microcontroller, as the lines between the various proce... » read more

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