Blog Review: May 24


Siemens' Patrick McGoff finds that designers have not had easy tools to address solderability, leaving a critical part of the manufacturing success of a PCB to the component engineer or the contract manufacturer, and points to manufacturing-driven design as a way to avoid quality issues later. Cadence's Rich Chang finds that effective UPF low-power verification and debug involves more than o... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


TECHCET is forecasting semiconductor precursor revenues, both for high-ƙ metal dielectrics and low-ƙ dielectrics, will increase in the second half of 2023, rebounding from the current zero percent growth rate. Wafer start volumes are expected to rebound in 2024 with expansions in 2nm and 3nm logic devices. SEMI also predicts the global slump in semiconductor sales will end this quarter, gi... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Design Ansys has signed a definitive agreement to acquire EDA tool company Diakopto. Diakopto specializes in software tools that find the cause of layout parasitics. Its products are ParagonX, for analyzing and debugging IC designs and layout parasitics, and EM/IR analysis/verification tool PrimeX. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2023. SEMI’s FlexTech community issu... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Former Apple engineer Weibao Wang was indicted for stealing Apple’s autonomous vehicle hardware and software IP and giving the information to Chinese competitors. Among other items, authorities said they found source code for the project on the engineer’s personal laptop, which was seized at his home. Wang fled to China the same day a search warrant was executed. This is one of five cases b... » read more

Blog Review: May 17


Synopsys' Dana Neustadter examines the key industries driving Ethernet security, challenges to securing Ethernet networks, and the MACsec protocol that guards against network data breaches by encrypting data traffic between Ethernet-connected devices. Siemens' Stephen Chavez points to the improvements gained from design reuse in PCB design but warns that inefficient processes for managing an... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


Global semiconductor sales reached $574 billion in 2022, and U.S. semiconductor companies accounted for sales totaling $275 billion, or 48% of the global market, according to the 2023 Factbook released by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). DRAM and NAND prices likely will continue to fall further this quarter because production cuts have not kept pace with weakening demand, accord... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Synopsys acquired Silicon Frontline Technology, a provider of an electrical layout verification solution for mixed-signal and analog designs, large-scale power semiconductor devices, and electrostatic discharge protection networks. "This acquisition enables Synopsys to extend the capabilities of our design analysis portfolio and help build out a system-level electrical analysis platform. We als... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive, mobility Qualcomm signed a definitive agreement to acquire fabless semiconductor company Autotalks, maker of automotive-qualified vehicle-to-everything (V2X) SoCs, processors, sensors, V2X RF transceivers, and other products for use in automatic braking and cooperative perception systems (where a vehicle can see what another vehicle is seeing). Autotalks’ V2X products are dual-m... » read more

Blog Review: May 10


Synopsys' Alessandra Nardi and Uyen Tran explain how to meet quality, reliability, functional safety, and security requirements of automotive chips through thorough test programs, path-margin monitoring, and design failure mode and effect analysis (DFMEA). Cadence's Veena Parthan explores how computational fluid dynamics can help predict and model the generation, propagation, and mitigation ... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


The global sales slump in semiconductors but may be stabilizing, according to a new report from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Worldwide sales of semiconductors fell 8.7% in Q1 2023 compared to the Q4 2022, and dropped 21.3% compared to the Q1 2022. Sales for the month of March 2023 increased 0.3% compared to February 2023. Meanwhile, SEMI reports worldwide silicon wafer shipment... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →