6G: Going Beyond 100 Gbps To 1 Tbps


6G research is in its very early stages. The vision for what the International Telecommunication Union calls Network 2030 continues to take shape. While the industry is years away from starting the standards development process, subterahertz (sub-THz) territory is a focus of active research. Getting to 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) to 1 terabit per second (Tbps) data throughput is a key obj... » read more

The Gargantuan 5G Chip Challenge


Blazing fast upload and download speeds for cellular data are coming, but making the technology function as expected throughout its expected lifetime is an enormous challenge that will require substantial changes across the entire chip ecosystem. While sub-6GHz is an evolutionary step from 4G LTE, the real promise of 5G kicks in with millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology. But these higher-freq... » read more

Sustainability, Ecosystems, And Consumer Requirements In 2022


Last December, my 2021 outlook focused on "industry transformations" across different verticals. I had referenced a lot of the ongoing transformations in hyperscale computing, aerospace/defense, automotive, and healthcare. 2021 didn't disappoint—most of what I discussed further accelerated pace. For instance, pretty much no booth felt complete at the annual Army AUSA event if they were not... » read more

Next Steps For Panel-Level Packaging


Tanja Braun, group manager at Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM), sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about III-V device packaging, chiplets, fan-out and panel-level processing. Fraunhofer IZM recently announced a new phase of its panel-level packaging consortium. What follows are excerpts of that discussion. SE: IC packaging isn’t new, but years a... » read more

The Top Five Areas For 5G Improvements


A recent article by TECHnalysis's Bob O'Donnell sparked some thoughts about the critical aspects in which 5G faces improvement needs. They include coverage, cost, power, killer applications, and global ecosystems. It will be a fascinating race over the next eight to ten years, and many decisions between the evolution of 5G versus a transition to 6G are much closer than one might think. I’v... » read more

The Search For 5G mmWave Filters


Cellular telephone technology takes advantage of a large number of frequency bands to provide ever-increasing bandwidth for mobile use. Each of those bands needs a filter to keep its signals separate from other bands, but the filter technologies in current use for cellphones may not scale up to the full millimeter-wave (mmWave) range planned for 5G. “MmWave will happen,” said Mike Eddy, ... » read more

3 Technologies That Will Challenge Test


As chips are deployed in more complex systems and with new technologies, it's not clear exactly what chipmakers and systems vendors will be testing. The standard tests for voltage, temperature and electrical throughput still will be needed, of course. But that won't be sufficient to ensure that sensor fusion, machine learning, or millimeter wave 5/6G will be functioning properly. Each of tho... » read more

Hyperconnectivity And The Path To 6G


Some may view the recent uptick in the news about next-generation wireless networking, specifically 6G, with some healthy skepticism as 5G is “just rolling out.” But when looking at the timelines, it becomes clear why 6G is critical and is also excellent news for electronics, and by extension, the design of semiconductors and systems. The same key elements that transformed the data center t... » read more

The Chip Industry’s Next-Gen Roadmap


Todd Younkin, the new president and chief executive of the Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC), sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about engineering careers, R&D trends and what’s ahead for chip technologies over the next decade. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: As a U.S.-based chip consortium, what is SRC's charter? Younkin: The Semiconductor Research... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 25


AI architecture optimization Researchers at Rice University, Stanford University, University of California Santa Barbara, and Texas A&M University proposed two complementary methods for optimizing data-centric processing. The first, called TIMELY, is an architecture developed for “processing-in-memory” (PIM). A promising PIM platform is resistive random access memory, or ReRAM. Whil... » read more

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