Automotive Innovations In Semiconductors


By Jeff Barnum, Janay Camp, and Cathy Perry Sullivan The semiconductor industry performed better than expected in 2020 despite the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy and is preparing for accelerated growth in 2021 and beyond. The global coronavirus pandemic significantly increased demand for communications electronics and fueled the growth in cloud computing to support remote work and ... » read more

Design For Test Data


As design pushes deeper into data-driven architectures, so does test. Geir Eide, director for product management of DFT and Tessent Silicon Lifecycle Solutions at Siemens Digital Industries Software, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about a subtle but significant shift for designing testability into chips so that test data can be used at multiple stages during a device’s lifetime. » read more

No Safety Without Dependable Security In Automotive Designs


The cyber threat faced by the automotive industry reached public awareness in 2015, when a “White Hat” research team commandeered the control electronics of a target vehicle at freeway speeds. Subsequently published details of the team’s work identified several discrete weak links that were leveraged by the researchers to create the attack. The approach illustrated a concept well-known to... » read more

Making Autonomous Driver Chips Safe From The Top Down


It’s easy to think of electronics applications in which the chips must be ultra-safe: nuclear power plants, aircraft, weapons systems, and implanted medical devices. Autonomous vehicles, capable of self-driving with only the electronics in control, are rapidly emerging to join this list. These vehicles must be “safe” in all the usual colloquial ways, but they also must meet a very specifi... » read more

Automotive Safety Island


The promise of autonomous vehicles is driving profound changes in the design and testing of automotive semiconductor parts. Automotive ICs, once deployed for simple functions like controlling windows, are now performing complex functions related to advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving applications. The processing power required results in very large and complex ICs that ... » read more

SoC Verification From Pre-Fabrication To The Over-the-Air Update


The recent new of attacks on system infrastructures serves to highlight that hardware vulnerabilities in the supply chain are not only possible but inevitable if proper precautions are ignored. Verification throughout the entire supply chain is necessary to ensure the safety and security of hardware. Starting as early as the pre-fabrication stage, vulnerabilities, if left unchecked, can be an o... » read more

Problems In The Power Grid


The gap is widening between power availability and peak demand. Ritesh Tyagi, head of innovation and growth strategy at Infineon Technologies, talks about what needs to be done to fix the power grid, particularly as more cars are electrified and more electronic devices are mobile. While there currently is a surplus in power being generated on a macro level in the United States, for example, it�... » read more

Virtual Prototyping In SoC Development


Modern semiconductor technologies enable manufacturers to pack more and more functions and memory into a single silicon die. While steadily advancing microintegration based on Moore’s Law just a few years ago mainly focused on increasing the clock frequency of integrated circuits (IC), today, it’s the design complexity and number of blocks that enable new IC functions. More and more logic b... » read more

Geopolitical And Economic Outlook For Chips And Equipment


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss geopolitical and economic changes and how they affect the chip industry with Jean-Christophe Eloy, CEO of Yole Developpement; Risto Puhakka, president of VLSI Research; Carolyn Evans, chief economist at Intel; Duncan Meldrum, chief economist at Hilltop Economics; and Rozalia Beica, head of the semiconductor business at AT&S... » read more

Qualifying Exposed Pad TQFP For AEC-Q006 Grade 0


Semiconductor packages used in various vehicle applications require high reliability. As technological innovations in the automotive market increase, the demand for highly reliable packaging is increasing for applications in autonomous driving, human interfaces, electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and more. Package reliability is essential because automotive packages must p... » read more

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