What’s So Different About Interposer Signal Integrity?


By Kelly Damalou and Pete Gasperini To achieve gains in power, performance, area, and cost, 3D-IC architectures are pushing electronics design to new limits. Silicon integration technology and associated devices have undergone an impressive evolution over the last several decades. Their development encourages technological advancement in applications like high-performance computing, Artificial... » read more

Coming In Hot: Requirements For Successful Thermal Management In 3D-IC


As the speed, density, and capabilities of electronics have all increased, power has become a first order driver in almost all electronic systems. For instance, it’s well recognized that heat is often the number one limiting factor in 3D-IC design. High-speed chips stacked close together in a small housing cause things to heat up fast. One of the most common designer responses to overheating ... » read more

Artificial Intelligence 101: It’s Math, Not Magic


The term artificial intelligence (AI) can be somewhat misleading. While the medium of intelligence is designed (and, in that sense, artificial or human-made), the intelligence itself is based on very real data. However, most people hear “AI” and think of futuristic robots or scenes from science fiction movies, not recognizing that the origin of AI is not fictional or magical — it’s math... » read more

A Glimpse Into Deep Space With Extreme Optical Engineering


By Daewook Kim and Erik Ferguson In the past few decades, optical science has pushed far beyond the foundations originally laid by Galileo and Newton 400 years ago. The planned deployment of new ground- and space-based telescopes dedicated to seeing farther into deep space in more detail than ever before will provide astronomers with increased opportunities to find Earth-like exoplanets and ... » read more

Thermal Cycling Failure In Electronics


Each time a device is turned off and on, its temperature changes. (Just think about how often your phone lights up all day.) Energy flowing through several layers of tightly stacked materials causes devices to heat up, then rapidly cool down. This repeated oscillation between temperatures over the lifetime of a device is called thermal cycling. Why thermal management is important Thermal cycl... » read more

Electromagnetic Simulation And 3D-IC Interposers


By Matt Commens, Juliano Mologni, and Pete Gasperini Today’s 3D integrated circuit (3D-IC) technology is the culmination of 40 years of research in universities and laboratories scattered across the globe. Beginning with dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) deployments that appeared on the market a decade ago, 3D-IC has since expanded its reach. It is now decisively beginning to achieve the... » read more

Multiphysics Signoff Solvers At DAC 2022


It seems like just yesterday when engineers were trying to fit all the functionality they could onto a monolithic 2D integrated circuit to maximize computing performance. Moore’s Law was going strong and standard chips were what everybody used. The Design Automation Conference (DAC) 2022, scheduled for July 10 to 14 in San Francisco, will show just how far we’ve come from those days. We�... » read more

Driving Toward A Sustainable Future


While the automotive industry has been focused on developing innovative electric vehicle (EV) designs for years, there is a new sense of urgency today. Worldwide sales of EVs are increasing quickly1, growing by 46% in 2020 and by 160% in the first half of 2021. Consumer demand is an important factor, but equally important are government mandates. In 2021, the European Union introduced strict... » read more

The Foundations Of Computational Electromagnetics


Maxwell’s Equations can be expressed in multiple variants – there are integral and differential versions in both frequency and time domains, along with quasi-static and full-wave forms. Their elegance is evident upon sight yet for only the simplest systems are there known solutions. Thus, without assumptions to simplify the math and/or system under study, it is frequently impossible to full... » read more

Mitigating Electronics Reliability Concerns During The Global Parts Shortage Crisis


The global parts shortage crisis has led to major disruptions to OEMs in the automotive, consumer electronics, and healthcare industries. To maintain production, many companies have been forced to rely on brokers to source the required parts, generating uncertainty in the quality of parts received. Additionally, some companies have had no choice but to replace previously used components with al... » read more

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