3D Metrology Meets Its Match In 3D Chips And Packages


The pace of innovation in 3D device structures and packages is accelerating rapidly, driving the need for precise measurement and control of feature height to ensure these devices are reliable and perform as expected throughout their lifetimes. Expansion along the z axis is already well underway. One need look no further than the staircase-like 3D NAND stacks that rise like skyscrapers to p... » read more

The Uncertainty Of Certifying AI For Automotive


Nearly every new vehicle sold uses AI to make some decisions, but so far there is no consistency in what is being developed, where it is being used, and whether it is compatible with other vehicles on the road. This fragmentation is partially due to the fact that AI is still a nascent technology, and cars and trucks sold today may be significantly different than those that will be sold sever... » read more

Why It’s So Hard To Secure AI Chips


Demand for high-performance chips designed specifically for AI applications is spiking, driven by massive interest in generative AI at the edge and in the data center, but the rapid growth in this sector also is raising concerns about the security of these devices and the data they process. Generative AI — whether it's OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, or xAI’s Grok — sifts thr... » read more

Toward A Software-Defined Hardware World


Software-defined hardware may be the ultimate Shift Left approach as chip design grows closer to true co-design than ever with potential capacity baked into the hardware, and greater functionality delivered over the air or via a software update. This marks another advance in the quest for lower power, one that’s so revolutionary that it’s upending traditional ideas about model-based systems... » read more

Opportunities Grow For GPU Acceleration


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the impact of GPU acceleration on mask design and production and other process technologies, with Aki Fujimura, CEO of D2S; Youping Zhang, head of ASML Brion; Yalin Xiong, senior vice president and general manager of the BBP and reticle products division at KLA; and Kostas Adam, vice president of engineering at Synopsys. W... » read more

Why IC Design Safety Nets Have Limits


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss different responsibilities in design teams and future changes in tools with Ashish Darbari, CEO at Axiomise; Ziyad Hanna, corporate vice president R&D at Cadence; Jim Henson, ASIC verification software product manager at Siemens EDA; Dirk Seynhaeve, vice president of business development at Sigasi; Simon Davidmann, formerly... » read more

Chip Design Digs Deeper Into AI


Growing demand for blazing fast and extremely dense multi-chiplet systems are pushing chip design deeper into AI, which increasingly is viewed as the best solution for sifting through scores of possible configurations, constraints, and variables in the least amount of time. This shift has broad implications for the future of chip design. In the past, collaborations typically involved the chi... » read more

RISC-V Heralds New Era Of Cooperation


RISC-V is paving the way for open source to become accepted within the hardware community, creating a level of industry collaboration never seen in the past, while revitalizing the connection between academia and industry. The big question is whether this arrangement is just a placeholder while the industry re-learns how to develop processors, or whether this processor architecture is someth... » read more

AI For Data Management


Data management is becoming a significant new challenge for the chip industry, as well as a brand new opportunity, as the amount of data collected at every step of design through manufacturing continues to grow. Exacerbating the problem is the rising complexity of designs, many of which are highly customized and domain-specific at the leading edge, as well as increasing demands for reliabili... » read more

Trouble Ahead For IC Verification


Verification complexity is roughly the square of design complexity, but until recently verification success rates have remained fairly consistent. That's beginning to change. There are troubling signs that verification is collapsing under the load. The first-time success rate fell (see figure 1) in the last survey conducted by Wilson Research, on behalf of Siemens EDA, in 2022. A new survey ... » read more

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