Pinpointing Timing Delays in Complex SoCs


Telemetry circuits are becoming a necessity in complex heterogeneous chips and packages to show how these devices are behaving post-production, but fusing together relevant data to identify the sources of problems adds its own set of challenges. In the past, engineering teams could build margin into chips to offset any type of variation. But at advanced nodes and in advanced packages, tolera... » read more

Search Based Method For Identifying Aging Model Parameters


A technical paper titled “Leveraging Public Information to Fit a Compact Hot Carrier Injection Model to a Target Technology” was published by researchers at University of Victoria. Abstract: "The design of countermeasures against integrated circuit counterfeit recycling requires the ability to simulate aging in CMOS devices. Electronic design automation tools commonly provide this ability... » read more

Chiplet Planning Kicks Into High Gear


Chiplets are beginning to impact chip design, even though they are not yet mainstream and no commercial marketplace exists for this kind of hardened IP. There are ongoing discussions about silicon lifecycle management, the best way to characterize and connect these devices, and how to deal with such issues as uneven aging and thermal mismatch. In addition, a big effort is underway to improve... » read more

Taming Corner Explosion In Complex Chips


There is a tenuous balance between the number of corners a design team must consider, the cost of analysis, and the margins they insert to deal with them, but that tradeoff is becoming a lot more difficult. If too many corners of a chip are explored, it might never see production. If not enough corners are explored, it could reduce yield. And if too much margin is added, the device may not be c... » read more

Safety, Security, And Reliability Of AI In Autos


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about security, aging, and safety in automotive AI systems, with Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix; Veerbhan Kheterpal, CEO of Quadric; Steve Teig, CEO of Perceive; and Kurt Busch, CEO of Syntiant. What follows are excerpts of that conversation, which was held in front of a live audience at DesignCon. Part one of this discussion is he... » read more

Safeguarding SRAMs From IP Theft (Best Paper Award)


A technical paper titled "Beware of Discarding Used SRAMs: Information is Stored Permanently" was published by researchers at Auburn University. The paper won "Best Paper Award" at the IEEE International Conference on Physical Assurance and Inspection of Electronics (PAINE) Oct. 25-27 in Huntsville. Abstract: "Data recovery has long been a focus of the electronics industry for decades by s... » read more

The Reliability Of Analog Integrated Circuits And Their Simulation-Aided Verification


Different challenges have to be overcome when designing integrated circuits. Besides schematic and layout design work, verification in view of the non-ideal behavior of circuits and semiconductor technologies in particular is also relevant. The designed circuits have to work at specific operating voltages and within ambient temperature ranges and be robust in terms of process fluctuations ... » read more

Variation Making Trouble In Advanced Packages


Variation is becoming increasingly problematic as chip designs become more heterogeneous and targeted by application, making it difficult to identify the root cause of problems or predict what can go wrong and when. Concerns about variation traditionally have been confined to the most advanced nodes, where transistor density is highest and where manufacturing processes are still being fine-t... » read more

Closing The Post-Silicon Timing Analysis Gap


Accurate static timing analysis is one of the most important steps in the development of advanced node semiconductor devices. Performance numbers are included in chip and system specifications from the earliest marketing requirements. The architects and designers carefully determine clock cycle times that can achieve the required performance using the chosen high-level architecture, micro-archi... » read more

Lots Of Data, But Uncertainty About What To Do With It


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about silicon lifecycle management in heterogeneous designs, where sensors produce a flood of data, with Prashant Goteti, principal engineer at Intel; Rob Aitken, R&D fellow at Arm; Zoe Conroy, principal hardware engineer at Cisco; Subhasish Mitra, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University... » read more

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