Why All Nodes Won’t Work


A flood of new nodes, half-nodes and every number in between is creating confusion among chipmakers. While most say it's good to have choices, it's not clear which or how many of those choices are actually good. At issue is which [getkc id="43" kc_name="IP"] will be available for those nodes, how that IP will differ from other nodes in terms of power, performance, area and sensitivity to a v... » read more

New Issues In Advanced Packaging


Advanced packaging is gaining in popularity as the cost and complexity of integrating everything onto a planar SoC becomes more difficult and costly at each new node, but ensuring that these packaged die function properly and yield sufficiently isn't so simple. There are a number of factors that are tilting more of the the semiconductor industry toward advanced [getkc id="27" kc_name="packag... » read more

Meeting ISO 26262 Software Standards


Software controls everything from safety critical systems like brakes and power steering, to basic vehicle controls like doors and windows. Yet the average car today may have up to 150,000 bugs, many of which could damage the brand, hurt customer satisfaction and, in the most extreme case, lead to a catastrophic failure. Software development testing is designed to help developers, management an... » read more

Toward High-End Fan-Outs


Foundries and OSATs are working on more advanced fan-outs, including some with vertically stacked die inside the package, filling a middle ground between lower-cost fan-outs and systems in package on one side and 2.5D and 3D-ICs on the other. These new [getkc id="202" kc_name="fan-outs"] have denser interconnects than previous iterations, and in some cases they include multiple routing layer... » read more

Finding Faulty Auto Chips


The next wave of automotive chips for assisted and autonomous driving is fueling the development of new approaches in a critical field called outlier detection. KLA-Tencor, Optimal+, as well as Mentor, a Siemens Business, and others are entering or expanding their efforts in the outlier detection market or related fields. Used in various industries for several years, outlier detection is one... » read more

Better Living Through Microelectronics


The recently completed 2018 Winter Olympic Games left many of us in awe of the athleticism on display. But this month’s 2018 Winter Paralympic Games, also being held in PyeongChang, South Korea, could be an even more impressive showcase of both skills and heart. Competitors from around the world will include athletes with a range of physical, intellectual and visual disabilities. Of course, t... » read more

Looking At Test Differently


Wilhelm Radermacher, executive advisor at [getentity id="22816" e_name="Advantest"], sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to discuss how the impact of rapid market changes, advanced packaging approaches and increasing complexity on test strategies and equipment. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: As we move into new markets where use models and stresses on devices are dif... » read more

Bosch Visiontec Case Study


The BOSCH Visiontec team innovates assisted and autonomous driving technology. This team develops state-of-the-art IPs and ICs containing high-performance processors that implement algorithms to recognize images from cameras in automobiles. They were tasked to create several brand-new designs that implemented mathematically-intense algorithms in less than a year. The specifications of these des... » read more

Automotive IPs Bring New Challenges To IP Management


Recent innovations in the automotive industry, like driving assistance, have fueled an insatiable appetite for more electronics in cars. With electronics now a major component of building an automobile, there is growing use of IPs and IP subsystems provided by multiple vendors. It is, however, becoming clear that IPs developed for the automotive industry are a totally different beast compared t... » read more

How To Secure The Network Edge


Microcontrollers, sensors, and other devices that live at the edge of the Internet must be protected against cyberattacks and intrusions just as much as the chips in data centers, network routers, and PCs. But securing those edge devices presents a swath of unique challenges, including the cost and availability of technology resources, as well as varying levels of motivation to solve these prob... » read more

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