More nuke plants for AI; critical IC materials risk; TIMs; Foxconn in Mexico; SDV challenges; EDA, IP, and chip sales up; ML in auto MCUs; 3nm PHY chiplet; medical equipment chip monitoring; AI testing.
The U.S. Department of Energy issued a report saying the United States may need to triple its nuclear power capacity threefold by 2050 to meet the needs of AI data centers. The report recommended expanding nuclear power capabilities as a complement to more renewable energy sources.
The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) released a new report on critical mineral supply chain risks for semiconductor production, citing four critical minerals — gallium, germanium, palladium, and silicon — and the potential impact if there is any disruption in availability.
Dow and Carbice announced a strategic partnership to provide a thermal interface material (TIM) product, leveraging Dow’s silicone with Carbice’s carbon nanotube technology. TIMs have been used sparingly in advanced-node chips and in high-utilization applications such AI due to their high cost, but as scaling continues the price of cooling is going up.
Foxconn is building an AI server fab in Mexico to meet the demand for NVIDIA‘s most powerful GB200 system now that bottlenecks in the supply chain have eased. The two companies also are teaming up to build Taiwan’s largest supercomputer.
GlobalWafers plans to broaden its production capabilities across the U.S., Italy, Japan, and South Korea. In the U.S, the company previously announced a 12-inch wafer fab in Texas, backed by a US$400 million subsidy from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.
imec launched star, a global network bringing together automotive and semiconductor innovators to address the technological challenges on the road to software-defined EVs.
Government chip investments are growing and widening, as detailed in a new special report, a recognition of the strategic importance of the chip sector, a desire to avoid a repeat of pandemic-era supply chain issues, and heightened geopolitical tensions, particularly between the U.S. and China. In related news, the UK recently presented its findings on semiconductor economic activity and Vietnam issued its semiconductor strategic development roadmap.
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Semiconductor Engineering published its Auto, Security & Pervasive Computing newsletter this week, featuring these top stories:
More reporting this week:
EDA and IP revenue increased 18.2% to $4.7 billion in Q2 YoY, with some of those increases attributed to underlying market shifts.
The Semiconductor Industry Association reported that global semi sales totaled $53.1 billion in August 2024, a 20.6% increase versus August 2023. “The global semiconductor market continued to grow substantially in August, hitting its highest-ever sales total for the month of August, and month-to-month sales increased for the fifth consecutive month,” stated John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO in a release.
Yole Group issued an MCU industry status analysis, drilling down into dynamics per region and reporting that more than half of all microcontrollers in 2023 were supplied by Infineon, ST and NXP, all located in the EU. Yole also issued microLED reports, emphasizing that significant performance at a cost comparable to OLED is essential for microLEDs to succeed. Advances are needed in die technology, transfer equipment, and manufacturing.
McKinsey reviewed 3 differentiators of semiconductor fabrication and different analytical approaches to provide insight into fab operations.
TSMC released it September 2024 monthly revenue report, highlighting a 39.6% revenue increase versus September 2023, but less than 1% growth versus August 2024.
The U.S. Department of Commerce and Edwards Vacuum inked a prelim agreement for an $18 million funding under the CHIPS Act. The funding will support construction of a new manufacturing plant in New York to produce dry vacuum pumps for semiconductor manufacturing.
Open-source EDA tools are free, readily available, and growing in numbers, but many chipmakers are wary of using them due to security concerns.
Recent security research:
UK’s Crypto Quantique and Taiwan’s Attopsemi partnered on a secure and efficient PUF solution for embedded devices such as MCUs and SoCs, enabling PUF error correction data to be stored securely in the OTP.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) urged organizations to encrypt HTTP persistence cookies and released best practices to configure BIG-IP local traffic manager (LTM) systems, plus a number of alerts/advisories.
Eliyan delivered its NuLink 2.0 PHY chiplet interconnect, manufactured in a 3nm process. The device can deliver 64 GB/s, is compatible with UCIe standard, and can deliver bandwidth of up to 5 Tb/s per mm in standard packaging.
proteanTecs launched a new application designed to enhance Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) in advanced electronics. Called RTHM (real-time health monitoring), the application enables predictive and prescriptive monitoring, delivering proactive ML fault detection.
Keysight introduced its multi-port, multi-user, multi-speed portable design and validation platform for AI testing, the 800GE Benchtop, and unveiled a 3kV high voltage wafer test system for power semiconductors.
Cadence integrated NVIDIA’s NeMo and NIM microservices into its genAI applications. The services will be used for retrieval-augmented generation, allowing for enhanced accuracy and dependability of AI-generated content. The company also rolled out a toolbox for MATLAB/Simulink model deployment for its Tensilica HiFi DSPs.
Infineon:
Samsung started mass production of 5nm controller chip with an 8-channel PCIe 5.0 interface, claiming up to to 14.5 GB/s reading speed and 13 GB/s writing speed.
AMD this week released a new AI accelerator chip, claiming 1.8X more capacity and 1.3X more bandwidth than NVIDIA‘s H200.
Intel launched its first AI PC Intel Core Ultra 200S series desktop processors.
Driver, an Austin, Texas-based startup, emerged from stealth mode with a new AI-based platform aimed at simplifying technical documentation. The company claims it can shrink the time it takes to document source code from three months to two hours.
PhotonDelta announced a new contest for engineers to design a new Photonic Integrated Circuit. Winners can receive up to $2.2 million in pre-seed funding and $54,000 in PhotonDelta ecosystem services.
MediaTek launched the Dimensity 9400, the company’s new smartphone chipset optimized for edge-AI applications, built on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process.
Analog Devices introduced its CodeFusion suite of cross-market hardware, software and services for the intelligent edge.
Texas Instruments rolled out a new family of PLDs that it claims can reduce PCB size by as much as 94%.
Infineon developed a vertical cavity surface emitting laser driver IC for automotive applications, adding to its REAL3 Time-of-Flight portfolio, and announced that Imagimob integrated ML capabilities into Infineon‘s Automotive ASIL-D compliant MCUs.
The MIPI Alliance announced that multiple global OEMs and automotive supply chain vendors embraced the MIPI A-PHY SerDes specification for high-speed image sensor and display connectivity.
Tata Technologies and BMW established a joint venture in India to innovate on software-defined vehicles.
The automotive ecosystem is in the midst of an intense evolution as OEMs and tiered providers grapple with how to deal with legacy technology while incorporating ever-increasing levels of autonomy, electrification, software defined vehicle concepts, just to name a few. As vehicle technology evolves, carmakers must decide which technologies move forward and what gets left behind.
Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto plans to buy U.S. Arcadium Lithium for $6.7B in a big bet on energy transition, particularly for EVs.
In automotive research:
Atomera is collaborating with Sandia National Labs to address the challenges of growing GaN films on Silicon.
ORNL researchers developed a technique for creating precise atomic arrangements in ferroelectric materials, establishing a framework for new technologies, including advanced memory storage.
Fig.1: ORNL-led research demonstrated how an electric stylus can precisely pattern and measure the behavior of ferroelectric materials at the nanoscale, enabling scientists to create, understand and control the unique properties of promising new materials. Credit: Marti Checa/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
ORNL researchers also devised a method called the Rapid Object Detection and Action System (RODAS) to observe changes in materials at the atomic level, opening new paths for advanced materials for quantum computing and electronics. The method combines imaging, spectroscopy and microscopy to capture the properties of fleeting atomic structures as they form.
Fig. 2: Electron microscopy measurements are usually performed by collecting all points in a 2D grid. Here, using deep learning in real time, only sites of interest are measured (colored circles), allowing experiments to be conducted on a much larger variety of materials, even those that change under the beam. Credit: Kevin Roccapriore and Scott Gibson/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Altair and Technical University of Munich made a breakthrough with computational fluid dynamics, overcoming several key challenges of the quantum computing implementation of the Lattice-Boltzmann Method.
Caltech researchers developed a device that could lead to some of the most precise time measurements ever achieved, merging state-of-the-art atomic clocks with quantum computers.
Cambridge University and the UK Advanced Research and Invention Agency partnered to accelerate progress on new neuro-technologies, including miniaturized brain implants.
Arm CEO Rene Haas kicked off his first “Tech Unheard” podcast with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, exploring the future of AI.
NATCAST added Intel veteran Dr. Robert Chao to its leadership team, as senior vice president of research and Jack Lazar to its Board of Trustees.
Princeton’s John Hopfield and University of Toronto’s Geoffrey Hinton were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for “ foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”
Bala Thumma joined D2S as the vice president of pixel-level dose correction (PLDC).
ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne (EPFL) founded the Swiss National AI Institute.
Georgia Tech opened a Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing Pilot Facility for the sustainable, large-scale production of components for solar cells, batteries, flexible electronics, and separations.
Purdue University launched a national center initiative for In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing of CHIPS in Space for Space and Earth and partnered with Texas A&M on thought leadership for operational resilience in space, under the United States Space Force‘s Space Strategic Technology Institute.
UC San Diego celebrated a program that gives Chula Vista High School students early access to its electrical engineering courses.
The U.S. government announced these awards for education:
Advantest announced a call for papers for its May 2025 VOICE Developer Conference in Austin, Texas, with submissions due by Nov. 8, 2024.
Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:
| Event | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 OCP Global Summit | Oct 15 – 17 | San Jose, CA |
| DVCON Europe | Oct 15 – 16 | Munich, Germany |
| OktoberTech: Infineon’s Technology Collaboration Forum | Oct 17 | Silicon Valley |
| Packaging Chips with CHIPS: West Coast Summit | Oct 17 | Scottsdale, Arizona |
| Hardwear.io Conference & Training | Oct 21 – 25 | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| CadenceCONNECT: Jasper User Group | Oct 22 – 23 | San Jose, CA |
| NSTC Symposium and Microelectronics Commons Annual Meeting | Oct 28 – 30 | Washington, D.C. |
| IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO 2024) | Nov 2 – 6 | Austin, Texas |
| Workshop on Hardware and Architectural Support for Security and Privacy (HASP) 2024 | Nov 2 | Austin, Texas |
| International Test Conference | Nov 3 – 8 | San Diego, CA |
| Phil Kaufman Award Ceremony and Banquet | Nov 6 | San Jose, CA |
| WISH | Women in Semiconductor Hardware | Nov 7 | San Jose, CA |
| IEEE PAINE Conference: Physical Assurance and Inspection of Electronics | Nov 12 – 14 | Huntsville, AL |
| SEMICON Europa | Nov 12 – 15 | Munich |
| Advanced Packaging Conference (APC) | Nov 13 | Munich |
| Infineon’s GaN Roadshow | Nov 17 | San Jose, CA |
| Ansys IDEAS User Conference India 2024 | Nov 20 | Bengaluru, India |
| 2024 SIA Awards Dinner | Nov 21 | San Jose, CA |
| Find All Upcoming Events Here | ||
Upcoming webinars are here, including topics such as automotive test, digital twins and AI for semiconductor manufacturing, chiplet integration.
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