Challenges In Backside Power Delivery


One of the key technologies to enable scaling below 3nm involves delivering of power on the backside of a chip. This novel approach enhances signal integrity and reduces routing congestion, but it also creates some new challenges for which today there are no simple solutions. Backside power delivery (BPD) eliminates the need to share interconnect resources between signal and power lines on t... » read more

On-Chip Power Distribution Modeling Becomes Essential Below 7nm


Modeling power distribution in SoCs is becoming increasingly important at each new node and in 3D-ICs, where tolerances involving power are much tighter and any mistake can cause functional failures. At mature nodes, where there is more metal, power problems continue to be rare. But at advanced nodes, where chips are running at higher frequencies and still consuming the same or greater power... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 16


Siemens EDA's Jake Wiltgen explains the difference between transient and permanent faults when designing to the ISO 26262 standard, including where they come from and key ways to protect against them. Synopsys' Vikas Gautam points to how the economics of designing large SoCs is driving chiplet-based designs and the need for die-to-die standards such as UCIe, along with the key protocol verif... » read more

Improving Reliability In Automobiles


Carmakers are turning to predictive and preventive maintenance to improve the safety and reliability of increasingly electrified vehicles, setting the stage for more internal and external sensors, and more intelligence to interpret and react to the data generated by those sensors. The number of chips inside of vehicles has been steadily rising, regardless of whether they are powered by elect... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


U.S. President Joe Biden appears ready to increase pressure on Japan and the Netherlands to help block the flow of advanced chip technology to China, where it can be used to develop cutting-edge weapons. "You will see Japan and Netherlands follow our lead," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNBC. Japan plans to budget ¥350 billion ($2.38 billion) in a research collaboration with th... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive And Mobility Two major auto OEMs revealed new electric vehicle models this week. The Audi Q8 e-tron has 40 driver assistance systems including five radar sensors, five cameras, and 12 ultrasonic sensors, and comes with either an 89 net kilowatt-hour battery or a 106 net kilowatt-hour battery. It arrives in the U.S. in April 2023. The Volvo EX90 contains both lidar and 5G connectivit... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Chip design Fraunhofer IIS/EAS implemented the Bunch of Wires (BoW) standard-based interface IP from the Open Compute Project (OCP) on Samsung's 5nm technology. The effort is intended to make chiplets more feasible for products with small and medium-sized production runs and determine the need for additional uniform standards in the future, such as for die-to-die bonding. “As part of t... » read more

Taking Power Much More Seriously


An increasing number of electronic systems are becoming limited by thermal issues, and the only way to solve them is by elevating energy consumption to a primary design concern rather than a last-minute optimization technique. The optimization of any system involves a complex balance of static and dynamic techniques. The goal is to achieve maximum functionality and performance in the smalles... » read more

Solving Thermal Coupling Issues In Complex Chips


Rising chip and packaging complexity is causing a proportionate increase in thermal couplings, which can reduce performance, shorten the lifespan of chips, and impact overall reliability of chips and systems. Thermal coupling is essentially a junction between two devices, such as a chip and a package, or a transistor and a substrate, in which heat is transferred from one to the other. If not... » read more

Developers Embrace Standards To Accelerate Growth Opportunities For The IoT


By the end of the decade, the potential economic value of the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to reach $12.6 trillion (yes, that’s a ‘t,’ not a typo), according to a McKinsey study. To achieve the scale required to meet this opportunity, critical IoT standards are coming together to enable the frictionless deployment of secure endpoint-to-cloud solutions – and being embraced by th... » read more

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