Multiphysics Challenges For EDA Tools


Cost and performance are the main drivers for scaling of integrated circuits. However, some applications do not scale as easily as others. This is particularly true for analog circuits and everything related to high voltage and high power. Still, the demand for these kind of applications is growing rapidly due to new emerging markets such as Industry 4.0, IoT, and e-mobility. In the automoti... » read more

Engineering Challenges for Viable Autonomous Vehicles


The rise of autonomous and electric vehicles brings with it a host of engineering implications, including an increase in the number and variety of sensors in the vehicle, increasing software and hardware complexity, massive validation and verification cycles, heightened safety and security requirements, and new demands for digital data continuity. This paper is an overview of how six interdisci... » read more

Tech Talk: Analog Simplified


Benjamin Prautsch, Fraunhofer EAS' group manager for advanced mixed-signal automation, talks about how to simplify and speed up analog IP development, its role in IoT and IIoT/Industry 4.0, and why this is becoming so important for advanced packaging and advanced process nodes. https://youtu.be/6ISL1A7Wy_I » read more

Get Ready For Integrated Silicon Photonics


Long-haul communications and data centers are huge buyers of photonics components, and that is leading to rapid advances in the technology and opening new markets and opportunities. The industry has to adapt to meet the demands being placed on it and solve the bottlenecks in the design, development and fabrication of integrated silicon photonics. "Look at the networking bandwidth used across... » read more

Wafer Demand: Under Pressure But Still Growing


Wafer demand grew 10.7% in 2017 while total semiconductor units grew 13.4%. Due to the tight supply of silicon wafers and increased prices, most manufactures placed an even higher priority on improving yields. The industry’s focus on yield improvements is relentless but especially important when the cost of key input materials is on the rise. In 2017 the semiconductor products that con... » read more

The Analog Design Gap


By Benjamin Prautsch and Torsten Reich Sensors are everywhere. In the context of Industry 4.0 and IoT, we face an ever-increasing demand for high-quality sensing. Data acquisition is fundamental to adaptive production chains. So aggregating data isn't just some nice-to-have feature. It is the basis of modern production systems. But don’t we have sensors already? Isn’t everything fine?... » read more

Why All Nodes Won’t Work


A flood of new nodes, half-nodes and every number in between is creating confusion among chipmakers. While most say it's good to have choices, it's not clear which or how many of those choices are actually good. At issue is which [getkc id="43" kc_name="IP"] will be available for those nodes, how that IP will differ from other nodes in terms of power, performance, area and sensitivity to a v... » read more

Using Data Mining Differently


The semiconductor industry generates a tremendous quantity of data, but until very recently engineers had to sort through it on their own to spot patterns, trends and aberrations. That's beginning to change as chipmakers develop their own solutions or partner with others to effectively mine this data. Adding some structure and automation around all of this data is long overdue. Data mining h... » read more

Testing Analog Chips


The world of analog components is broad and diverse, and while testing analog chips may not take as long as running tests on complex SoCs, there are different requirements for analog devices. One type of chip that's seeing more application these days is analog microelectromechanical system devices. Automotive electronics call for a number of [getkc id="37" kc_name="analog"] chips, along with... » read more

Mixed-Signal Issues Worse At 10/7nm


Despite increasingly difficulty in scaling digital logic to 10/7nm, not all designs at the leading edge are digital. In fact, there are mixed-signal components in designs at almost all nodes down to 10/7nm. This may seem surprising because analog scaling has been an issue since about 90nm, but these are not traditional analog components. Analog IP increasingly includes highly integrated, mix... » read more

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