Long Lead Times Seen For Equipment


There are a number of big stories in the semiconductor market thus far in 2021. Automotive chip shortages and tight foundry capacity are among the bigger ones. That’s just for starters. What hasn’t received much attention is the ongoing shortages and long lead times for semiconductor equipment. In some cases, lead times have stretched out to 12 months or more for some equipment. Some t... » read more

The EV Era Has Begun: Here Are Five Things We Need For It To Succeed


The EV era has officially begun. General Motors says it will eliminate gas and diesel cars and SUVs from its lineup by 2035 while Ford will go all electric in Europe by 2030. The UK issued plans for phasing out diesel and gas cars by 2035 and then moved it forward to 2030. Fleet customers such as UPS and Amazon are ordering zero emissions delivery vehicles by the thousands and investing in s... » read more

Using 5nm Chips And Advanced Packages In Cars


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the impact of advanced node chips and advanced packaging on automotive reliability with Jay Rathert, senior director of strategic collaborations at KLA; Dennis Ciplickas, vice president of advanced solutions at PDF Solutions; Uzi Baruch, vice president and general manager of the automotive business unit at OptimalPlus; Gal Carmel, general manager of... » read more

The Other Side Of AI System Reliability


Adding intelligence into pervasive electronics will have consequences, but not necessarily what most people expect. Nearly everything electronic these days has some sort of "smart" functionality built in or added on. This can be as simple as a smoke alarm that alerts you when the batteries are running low, a home assistant that learns your schedule and dials the thermostat up or down, or a r... » read more

Design Issues For Chips Over Longer Lifetimes


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the myriad challenges associated with chips used in complex systems over longer periods of time them with Jean-Marie Brunet, senior director for the Emulation Division at Siemens EDA; Frank Schirrmeister, senior group director for solution marketing at Cadence; Maurizio Griva, R&D Manager at Reply; and Laurent Maillet-Contoz, system and architec... » read more

Over-the-Air Automotive Updates


Modern vehicles are increasingly-connected devices with growing volumes of electronic systems. This systemic complexity means that even an average vehicle design will include over 150 ECUs, which control not just infotainment and communications, but powertrain, safety, and driving systems (figure 1). We see not just a surge in the volume and complexity of electronic hardware, but also software.... » read more

Auto OEMs Face New Competitive Threats


Automotive design and manufacturing are undergoing a fundamental shift to the left as cars increasingly are electrified and chips take over more functions formerly done by mechanical parts, setting the stage for massive disruption across a supply chain that has been in place for decades. The success of Tesla — a company that had never actually built a chip or a car — was both a surprise ... » read more

Making Vehicle Electronics Safe With ISO 26262 Compliance


There are many semiconductor applications with high demands on safety, including spaceborne systems, nuclear power plants, and embedded medical devices. But automotive electronics are probably foremost in most peoples’ minds when they think about safe operation under all conditions. The advent of fully autonomous vehicles is responsible for much of this attention. Like other safety-critical a... » read more

Self-Driving Cars In San Francisco


You probably have heard that Waymo has completely driverless (no safety driver) taxis serving Phoenix. 600 of them. But you can't go and buy one. Why is that? Paul Graham, the founder of the incubator Y Combinator, is celebrated for many reasons, but two things he has said have become mantra in the startup world: Build something people want. Do things that don't scale. When it comes ... » read more

4 Horsemen Of Wire Harness Manufacturing


Growing demands for automotive electrical and electronic (E/E) features drive increased complexity in the wiring harnesses that carry power and data signals to components around the vehicle. As a result, the wire harness manufacturing industry is expected to see significant growth, expanding into a 91 billion dollar industry in 2025. However, wire harness manufacturers often operate on small pr... » read more

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