The Race To Much More Advanced Packaging


Momentum is building for copper hybrid bonding, a technology that could pave the way toward next-generation 2.5D and 3D packages. Foundries, equipment vendors, R&D organizations and others are developing copper hybrid bonding, which is a process that stacks and bonds dies using copper-to-copper interconnects in advanced packages. Still in R&D, hybrid bonding for packaging provides mo... » read more

eFPGAs Vs. FPGA Chiplets


Embedded FPGAs are a totally different concept from discrete FPGA chiplets, and that is reflected in size, cost, power and performance. Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix, talks about which applications are best for each, how each maximizes power and performance, and why choices will vary greatly by application. Related eFPGA Knowledge Center FPGA Knowledge Center Increasing EFPGA Densit... » read more

Semicon West Day One/Two


For years, the semiconductor and equipment industry has congregated at the annual Semicon West trade show in San Francisco. It’s an event to get an update on the latest equipment, test and packaging technologies. It’s also a good way to meet with people who you haven’t seen in a year, if not longer. It’s a great way to get a pulse on the industry. Needless to say, Semicon is a vir... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: July 21


Intel’s next-gen MRAM At the recent 2020 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, Intel presented a paper on a CMOS-compatible spin-orbit torque MRAM (SOT-MRAM) device. Still in R&D, SOT-MRAM is a next-generation MRAM designed to replace SRAM. Generally, processors integrate a CPU, SRAM and a variety of other functions. SRAM stores instructions that are rapidly needed by the processo... » read more

Speeding Up The R&D Metrology Process


Several chipmakers are making some major changes in the characterization/metrology lab, adding more fab-like processes in this group to help speed up chip development times. The characterization/metrology lab, which is generally under the radar, is a group that works with the R&D organization and the fab. The characterization lab is involved in the early analytical work for next-generati... » read more

Integrating FPGA: Comparison Of Chiplets Vs. eFPGA


FPGA is widely popular in systems for its flexibility and adaptability. Increasingly, it is being used in high volume applications. As volumes grow, system designers can consider integration of the FPGA into an SoC to reduce cost, reduce power and/or improve performance. There are two options for integrating FPGA into an SoC: FPGA chiplets, which replace the power hungry SERDES/PHYs wit... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


IoT Arm is proposing to transfer its two IoT divisions to SoftBank Group Corp., which will own and operate them under new entities. The two IoT Services Group (ISG) businesses are IoT Platform and Treasure Data. Arm intends to focus more on its IP roadmap in data and compute, once the transfer becomes finalized. It is subject to more board review. “Arm believes there are great opportunities ... » read more

Moving Data And Computing Closer Together


The speed of processors has increased to the point where they often are no longer the performance bottleneck for many systems. It's now about data access. Moving data around costs both time and power, and developers are looking for ways to reduce the distances that data has to move. That means bringing data and memory nearer to each other. “Hard drives didn't have enough data flow to cr... » read more

Advanced Packaging Makes Testing More Complex


The limits of monolithic integration, together with advances in chip interconnect and packaging technologies, have spurred the growth of heterogeneous advanced packaging where multiple dies are co-packaged using 2.5D and 3D approaches. But this also raises complex test challenges, which are driving new standards and approaches to advanced-package testing. While many of the showstopper issues... » read more

Monitoring IC Abnormalities Before Failures


The rising complexities of semiconductor processes and design are driving an increasing use of on-chip monitors to support data analytics from an IC’s birth through its end of life — no matter how long that projected lifespan. Engineers have long used on-chip circuitry to assist with manufacturing test, silicon debug and failure analysis. Providing visibility and controllability of inter... » read more

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