category: Top Stories

category: Auto, Security & Edge AI

Photomask Changes And Challenges At Mature And Advanced Nodes
By Gregory Haley - 16 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the current state and future direction of mask-making, with Harry Levinson, principal lithographer at HJL Lithography; Aki Fujimura, CEO of D2S; Ezequiel Russell, senior director of mask technology at Micron; and Christopher Progler, executive vice president and CTO at Photronics. What follows are excerpts of that conversation.... » read more

RISC-V’s Increasing Influence
By Brian Bailey - 12 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 2

The industry is increasingly talking about benefits brought by the RISC-V architecture, but is it even the right starting point? While it may not be perfect, it may provide the flexibility necessary to move forward gradually. Computer architectures and software have followed in the footsteps of processors developed 80 years ago. They aimed to solve sequential, scalar arithmetic problems usin... » read more

Multi-Die Assemblies Complicate Parasitic Extraction
By Ann Mutschler - 12 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

The shift from planar designs to multi-die assemblies with complex interconnects is transforming what had become almost an afterthought in the design process into a first-order challenge. Parasitics include things like inductance, capacitance, and resistance, which have become more problematic at advanced nodes due to increasing logic density, thinner interconnects and insulators, and a spik... » read more

The Best DRAMs For Artificial Intelligence
By Bryon Moyer - 12 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

Artificial intelligence (AI) involves intense computing and tons of data. The computing may be performed by CPUs, GPUs, or dedicated accelerators, and while the data travels through DRAM on its way to the processor, the best DRAM type for this purpose depends on the type of system that is performing the training or inference. The memory challenge facing engineering teams today is how to keep... » read more

Challenges In Using Sub-7nm ICs In Automotive
By Laura Peters - 10 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

The automotive industry is producing vehicles with increasing levels of real-time decision-making, enabled by thousands of ICs, sensors, and multi-chip packages, but making sure these systems work flawlessly throughout their expected lifetimes is a growing challenge. Automotive chips traditionally were developed at mature process nodes in five- to seven-year cycles, but much has changed over... » read more

Rethinking Chip Reliability For Harsh Conditions
By Gregory Haley - 10 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

As semiconductors push into environments once considered untenable, reliability expectations are being redefined. From the vacuum of space and the inside of jet engines to deep industrial automation and electrified drivetrains, chips now must endure extreme temperature swings, corrosive atmospheres, mechanical vibration, radiation, and unpredictable power cycles, all while delivering increasing... » read more

High-Quality Data Needed To Better Utilize Fab Data Streams
By Anne Meixner - 10 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

Fab operations have wrestled with big data management issues for decades. Standards help, but only if sufficient attention to detail is taken during collection. Semiconductor wafer manufacturing represents one of the most complex manufacturing processes in the world. With each generation of process improvement comes more sophisticated fab equipment, new process recipes, and exponential incre... » read more

How Secure Are Analog Circuits?
By Ed Sperling - 05 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

The move toward multi-die assemblies and the increasing value of sensor data at the edge are beginning to focus attention and raise questions about security in analog circuits. In most SoC designs today, security is almost entirely a digital concern. Security requirements in digital circuits are well understood, particularly in large data centers and at the upper end of edge computing, which... » read more

Mobile Chip Challenges In The AI Era
By Liz Allan - 05 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

Leading smart phone vendors are struggling to keep pace with the rising compute and power demands of localized generative AI, standard phone functions, and the need to move more data back and forth between handsets and the cloud. In addition to edge functions, such as facial recognition and other on-device apps, phones must accommodate a continuous stream of new communications protocols, and... » read more

AR/VR Glasses Taking Shape With New Chips
By Liz Allan - 05 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

More augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) wearables are coming, but how they are connected, and where image and other data is processed, are still in flux. Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, for example, look like classic eyeglasses, but they rely on a tethered smart phone for such functions as taking pictures, AI voice assistance, and object identification. In contrast... » read more

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