Consortium Results (Part 3 of 3): 20nm FDSOI Comes Out Way Ahead


The results of the most recent SOI Consortium benchmarking study detail the interest of planar FD-SOI as early as the 28nm and 20nm technology nodes, in terms of performance, power and manufacturability. This 3-part blog series looks further at some of the implications. ~~ The SOI Industry Consortium announcement at the end of the year provided silicon proof that FD-SOI handily bea... » read more

FD-SOI – Consortium Results (Part 2 of 3): Power and Performance


The results of the most recent SOI Consortium benchmarking study detail the interest of planar FD-SOI as early as the 28nm and 20nm technology nodes, in terms of performance, power and manufacturability. This 3-part blog series looks further at some of the implications. ~~ Fully depleted transistor architectures such as Planar FD-SOI, FinFETs (which is also a fully-depleted technolog... » read more

FD-SOI – Recent Consortium Results (Part 1 of 3): Manufacturing


The most recent SOI Consortium benchmarking study regarding 28nm and 20nm FD-SOI results (silicon-calibrated simulations at the 28nm node of complex circuits including ARM cores and DDR3 memory controllers) covered a lot of ground. This post is part 1 of a 3-part blog series that will be highlighting key points with respect to: 1. manufacturing; 2. power & performance; 3. 20nm benchmarking ... » read more

Margin Call


Ever since Moore’s Law passed 65nm, the discussion has focused on power versus performance. Do you run a chip faster and hotter, or do you keep performance about the same from one chip to the next and improve battery life. At 28nm and beyond, there are other factors that begin to weigh into this discussion. One is reliability. Can a chip developed at the forefront of Moore’s Law be as re... » read more

How Long Will 28nm Last?


By Ann Steffora Mutschler As soon as a next generation semiconductor manufacturing process node is out, bets are taken on just how long the current advanced process node will last. The 28/20nm transition is no exception. There is certainly a benefit to moving from 40nm to 28nm. The  availability of high-k/metal gate technology offers quite a few advantages in terms of power reduction... » read more

CMP, ST et al offer 28nm FD-SOI for prototyping, research


Posted by Adele Hars, Editor-in-Chief, Advanced Substrate News ~  ~ What would a port to 28nm FD-SOI do for your design?  A recent announcement by CMP, STMicroelectronics and Soitec invites you to find out.  Specifically, ST’s CMOS 28nm Fully Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (FD-SOI) process – which uses innovative silicon substrates from Soitec and incorporates robust, compact model... » read more

20nm IP Portability Appears Virtually Impossible


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Each node on the deep submicron path has brought new challenges to engineering teams, and 20nm is no different. With EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography challenges still being worked out, double patterning (DP) instead will be embraced in the manufacturing process most likely until 10nm. Due to the unique nature of DP, IP portability between foundries will become a ... » read more

Talking Heads


The use of more third-party IP inside SoCs coupled with problems encountered at advanced process nodes is turning up some interesting challenges—and pointing the industry in some interesting directions. It’s a well-known fact that third-party IP isn’t always used as it was intended. Even internally developed IP isn’t always used as prescribed. It’s not unusual for chip developers t... » read more

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