category: Editor’s Note

category: IoT, Security & Automotive

Testing AI Systems
By Ed Sperling - 15 Jan, 2019 - Comments: 0

AI is booming. It's coming to a device near you—maybe even inside of you. And AI will be used to design, manufacture and even ship those devices, regardless of what they are, where they are used, or how they are transported. The big questions now are whether these systems work, for how long—and what do those metrics even mean? An AI system, or AI-enhanced system, is supposed to adapt ove... » read more

4 Issues In Test
By Ed Sperling - 10 Dec, 2018 - Comments: 0

When most design engineers think about test, they envision a large piece of equipment in the fab they probably will never actually see or interact with. But as chips become more complex—driven by an explosion in both quantity and different types of data—test is emerging as one of the big challenges in design and manufacturing. There are four primary segments for test, each with its own s... » read more

The Next Materials Race
By Ed Sperling - 05 Nov, 2018 - Comments: 0

Trade wars are costly on many fronts, and a trade war between the United States and China is bound to cause a variety of problems that no one anticipated. But in some areas, there may be a silver lining. And where there is no silver lining available, other materials may suffice. For decades, big chipmakers have been squeezing the entire semiconductor supply chain in a race to double the num... » read more

Why Test Costs Will Increase
By Ed Sperling - 08 Oct, 2018 - Comments: 0

The economics of test are under siege. Long seen as a necessary but rather mundane step in ensuring chip quality, or a way of testing circuitry from the inside while it is still in use, manufacturers and design teams have paid little attention to this part of the design-through-manufacturing flow. But problems have been building for some time in three separate areas, and they could have a b... » read more

The Quest For Perfection
By Ed Sperling - 10 Sep, 2018 - Comments: 0

Demands by automakers for zero defects over 15 years are absurd, particularly when it comes to 10/7nm AI systems that will be the brains of autonomous and assisted driving or any mobile electronic device. There are several reasons for this. To begin with, no one has ever used a 10/7nm device under extreme conditions for any length of time. Chips developed at these nodes are just starting to ... » read more

Who’s Paying For Auto Chip Test?
By Ed Sperling - 06 Aug, 2018 - Comments: 0

Testing of automotive chips is becoming more difficult and time-consuming, and the problem is only going to get worse. There is more to this than simply developing new test equipment or devising a better design for test flow. There are multiple issues at play here, and some of them are at odds with the others. First, no one has experience using advanced-node chips in extreme environments.... » read more

Testing Cars In Context
By Ed Sperling - 12 Jul, 2018 - Comments: 0

The choices for companies developing systems or components that will work in autonomous vehicles is to road test them for millions of miles or to simulate them, or some combination of both. Simulation is much quicker, and it has worked well in the semiconductor world for decades. Simulating a chip or electronic system in context is hard enough. But simulating a system of systems in the real... » read more

New Transistor Types Vs. Packaging
By Ed Sperling - 11 Jun, 2018 - Comments: 0

Plans are being formulated for the rollout of multiple types of gate-all-around FETs and literally dozens of advanced packaging options. The question now is which ones will achieve critical mass, because there aren't enough chips in the world to support all of them profitably. FinFETs, which were first introduced by Intel at 22nm, are running out of steam. While they will survive 10/7nm, and... » read more

The Case For Chiplets
By Ed Sperling - 07 May, 2018 - Comments: 4

Discussion about chiplets is growing as the cost of developing chips at 10/7nm and beyond passes well beyond the capabilities of many chipmakers. Estimates for developing 5nm chips (the equivalent 3nm for TSMC and Samsung) are well into the hundreds of millions of dollars just for the NRE costs alone. Masks costs will be in the double-digit millions of dollars even with EUV. And that's assum... » read more

The Race To Mass Customization
By Ed Sperling - 09 Apr, 2018 - Comments: 0

The number of advanced packaging options continues to rise. The choices now include different materials for interposers, at least a half-dozen fan-outs, not to mention hybrid fan-out/3D stacking, system-in-package, flip-chip and die-to-die bridges. There are several reasons for all of this activity. First, advanced packaging offers big improvements in performance and power that cannot be ac... » read more

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