Fusing CMOS IC And MEMS Design For IoT Edge Devices


Creating a sensor-based IoT edge device is challenging, due to the multiple design domains involved (Analog, digital, RF, and MEMS). But, creating an edge device that combines the electronics using the traditional CMOS IC flow and a MEMS sensor on the same silicon die can seem impossible. In fact, many IoT edge devices combine multiple dies in a single package, separating electronics from the M... » read more

Starting Point Is Changing For Designs


The starting point for semiconductor designs is shifting. What used to be a fairly straightforward exercise of choosing a processor based on power or performance, followed by how much on-chip versus off-chip memory is required, has become much more complicated. This is partly due to an emphasis on application-specific hardware and software solutions for markets that either never existed befo... » read more

Prototypes Proliferate


Hardware prototyping and [getkc id="30" kc_name="emulation"] have been two sides of the same coin ever since the [gettech id="31071" comment="FPGA"] became a commercial success. Early emulators were all built from FPGAs, and most were used in-circuit, much like prototypes are today. More recently, emulation has become a major piece of the [getkc id="10" kc_name="verification"] flow, to the poin... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


Connectivity Sigfox this week held the first annual Sigfox World IoT Expo in Prague, Czech Republic, bringing together network operators, business partners, and industry professionals. The company announced a number of new services for its users, including the Admiral Ivory connectivity service, which promises to make any short-range wireless device into a long-range Internet of Things device,... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 26


Long-range communication Researchers at the University of Washington developed devices that run on almost zero power can transmit data across distances of up to 2.8 kilometers. The long-range backscatter system, which uses reflected radio signals to transmit data at extremely low power, achieved reliable coverage throughout 4800-square-foot house, an office area covering 41 rooms and a one-acr... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


Finance Santa Monica, Calif.-based Sixgill reports raising $27.9 million in its Series B round of private financing, led by DRW Venture Capital. Mobile Financial Partners participated in the round. The startup last year raised $6 million in its Series A funding, also led by DRW. The company offers the Sixgill Sense sensor data services platform, addressing applications in the Internet of Thing... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


Conferences Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and 5G wireless communications were the talk of this week’s Mobile World Congress Americas event at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Interesting topics, to be sure, yet they were eclipsed by a panel discussion on Wednesday afternoon about a matter of life or death. At a program put together by 151 Advisors, one of the panel ses... » read more

Multi-Physics Combats Commoditization


The semiconductor industry has benefited greatly from developments around digital circuitry. Circuits have grown in size from a few logic gates in the 1980s to well over 1 billion today. In comparison, analog circuits have increased in size by a factor of 10. The primary reason is that digital logic managed to isolate many of the physical effects from functionality, and to provide abstractions ... » read more

Energy Efficient, IoT-Based Smart Home


"Smart Home" technology is the future of residential technology, designed to deliver and distribute a number of services inside and outside the house via networked devices in which all the different applications and the intelligence behind them are integrated and interconnected. These smart devices have the potential to share information with each other as long as they can access a broadband in... » read more

Systems Of Packages


The shift from IP blocks to subsystems, with pre-integrated and pre-verified IP, has never lived up to the initial hype. That doesn't mean the concept isn't valid, though. The problem with subsystems, as originally conceived, is they were far too limited for widespread adoption. When this idea first began surfacing in the early pat of the Millennium, this all made sense because the number o... » read more

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