Preparing For The Multiphysics Future of 3D ICs


3D integrated circuits (3D ICs) are emerging as a revolutionary approach to design, manufacturing and packaging in the semiconductor industry. Offering significant advantages in size, performance, power efficiency and cost, 3D ICs are poised to transform the landscape of electronic devices. However, with 3D ICs come new design and verification challenges that must be addressed to ensure success... » read more

Challenges In Scaling Chips To 2nm And Below


Key Takeaways Scaling to 2nm and below continues due to power improvements per watt, but progress is much more challenging and costly. Solutions to problems often create other problems due to less margin for tradeoffs, often requiring larger interposers, more chiplets, and more complex packages. New levels of precision are required throughout the design-through-manufacturing flow, re... » read more

Beating The Heat In 3D Packages


Key Takeaways: Thermal management is a central design constraint, requiring early, thorough planning. Accurate thermal simulation requires AI-driven adaptive meshing and real-world validation. Innovative STCO strategies can drastically reduce GPU peak temperature. As HPC and AI accelerators push power densities to 1kW and beyond, the heat generated by rapidly switching tran... » read more

Six 3D-IC Design Trends That Secure The AI Era


By Pratyush Kamal and Todd Burkholder Greater functionality, performance, and speed are in great demand in pervasive computing, RF, and automotive electronic systems, as well as most everything else. Complexity continues to skyrocket, leading many to say we are officially in the post-Moore’s Law world. In his seminal 1965 paper, “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits,�... » read more

Why Move To 2nm?


Key Takeaways: Scaling digital logic still provides significant benefits, especially lower power. Multi-die assemblies will be the predominant approach, and most of the circuitry will not be 2nm or below. While these systems are inherently more flexible, the number and complexity of tradeoffs required for optimizing PPA/C are increasing. The rollout of 2nm process nodes and ... » read more

Chiplet Fundamentals For Engineers: eBook


Multi-die assemblies are the next phase of Moore's Law, scaling up and out  to improve performance and add flexibility into designs. By decomposing SoCs into building blocks, yield improves for the individual dies and overall performance increases because a chip is no longer bound by reticle limits. But this is much harder than it sounds. Chiplets don't just snap together like LEGOs, and so... » read more

How The EDA Industry Will Evolve In 2026


AI will continue to impact every facet of the EDA industry. Pressure will mount in 2026 on design teams to drive productivity gains while technical complexity continues to escalate. This will reshape how teams work and the tools they use. Success will be determined by balancing the trade-offs between integrated platforms and best-of-breed toolchains and developing talent internally rather than ... » read more

Opening The Door To STCO: Hierarchical Device Planning


By Todd Burkholder and Per Viklund The heterogeneous integration of multiple chiplets in a single packaging platform is critical for many high-performance market segments, such as AI, hyperscalers, high-performance computing, cloud data centers, neural processors, and even autonomous vehicles. This increased design complexity has led to an explosion in device complexity and pin counts. It... » read more

Big Changes Ahead For Semiconductor Manufacturing


John Kibarian, CEO of PDF Solutions, talks with Semiconductor Engineering's Ed Sperling about the growing role of AI in chip manufacturing, the impact of 3D-ICs on the supply chain, and how to shorten cycle time to get leading-edge chips and multi-die assemblies to market more quickly. To listen, click here.   » read more

Reliability And Traceability In Advanced Packages


The move from planar SoCs to advanced packages can improve performance and provide flexibility in large designs, which are difficult to fit onto a single reticle-sized die. But ensuring the device works as expected remains a challenge. There are multiple packaging options to choose from — 2.5D, fan-out wafer-level packaging, 3D-ICs, and various types of system-in-package — and many possible... » read more

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