Reflecting Back on 2016: Markets


Anyone can make a prediction, and sometimes the more outlandish they are the more they get noticed. But at the end of the year some people hit the mark while others may have been way off. Many people simply make projections based on the current trajectory of trends, while others look for the potential discontinuities that may lie ahead. Semiconductor Engineering examines the projections made... » read more

Assessing ESD Sensitivity Of Interface IP Using Charged Device Model


An electronic device is susceptible to Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) damage during its entire life cycle, especially from the completion of the silicon wafer processing to when the device is assembled in the system. The most commonly used ESD test models are the Human Body Model (HBM) and the Charged Device Model (CDM). Both models assess the ESD sensitivity of a device, however due to the rapi... » read more

Timing Closure Issues Resurface


Timing closure has resurfaced as a major challenge at 10nm and 7nm due to more features and power modes, increased process variation and other manufacturing-related issues. While timing-related problems are roughly correlated to rising complexity in semiconductors, they tend to generate problems in waves—about once per decade. In SoCs, timing closure problems have spawned entire methodolog... » read more

Blog Review: Dec. 7


Mentor's Harry Foster looks at verification results findings in terms of schedules, number of required spins, and classification of functional bugs, in the latest installment of the Wilson Research Group verification study. Cadence's Paul McLellan provides an overview of the portable stimulus standard currently being worked on at Accellera. Synopsys' Anika Malhotra checks out JESD204B, a ... » read more

The Right Kind Of Fun


A couple of weeks ago I went to see “Together Again At Last…For The Very First Time” by John Cleese and Eric Idle at the Center for the Performing Arts in San Jose. I hope all of you recognize both gentlemen as two members of Monty Python. As you can imagine, it was quite an exciting night. With the audience being Monty Python fanatics, every video clip or skit was received with a lot ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Manufacturing There are more changes at SEMI. SEMI has named David Anderson as president of the SEMI Americas region. Most recently, Anderson was chief executive and chairman of Novati, a specialty manufacturing fab. He replaces Karen Savala, who was president of the SEMI Americas region for six years. In an e-mail, Savala confirmed she left SEMI in October. Meanwhile, in October, SEMI an... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Deals Kilopass extended its deal with ICScape, which makes a Parallel SPICE simulator, for eNVM IP at advanced finFET nodes. Kilopass has been working with ICScape for the past couple of years as part of its qualification methodology. IP Silvaco released three MIPI I3C sensor controller IP cores. Developed with NXP to push adoption of I3C, the new products are an Advanced Slave core wi... » read more

Can Startups Solve Today’s Automotive Challenges?


When asked about the most pressing concerns today amongst automotive customers, some leading industry suppliers had the following to say: Samer Hijazi, senior design engineering architect, IP Group at Cadence: How fast can I deploy? Ron DiGiuseppe, Senior Strategic Marketing Manager at Synopsys: Our customers are very broadly requiring ISO26262 safety compliance in our products as well a... » read more

Optimizing Multiple IoT Layers


As the number of connected devices rises, so do questions about how to optimize them for target markets, how to ensure they play nicely together, and how to bring them to market quickly and inexpensively. [getkc id="76" kc_name="IoT"] is broad term that encompasses a lot of disparate pieces for devices, systems, and connected systems. At the highest levels are hardware and software, but with... » read more

Formal’s Roadmap


Formal verification has come a long way in the past five years as it focused on narrow tasks within the verification flow. Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss that progress, and the future of formal technologies, with [getperson id="11306" comment="Raik Brinkmann"], president and CEO of [getentity id="22395" e_name="OneSpin Solutions"]; Harry Foster, chief verification scientist at [g... » read more

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