What’s After 10nm?

By Mark LaPedus - 14 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

For some time, chipmakers have roughly doubled the transistor count at each node, while simultaneously cutting the cost by around 29%. IC scaling, in turn, enables faster and lower cost chips, which ultimately translates into cheaper electronic products with more functions. Consumers have grown accustomed to the benefits of Moore’s Law, but the question is for how much longer? Chips based ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 29

By Mark LaPedus - 29 Oct, 2013 - Comments: 0

Diamond chips The optical transistor, which transports photons, holds great promise. Photons are not only faster than electrons, but they have less crosstalk. But optical transistors are also expensive and difficult to produce. In a possible breakthrough, the ICFO-Institute of Photonic Sciences has demonstrated a “nano-size” diamond that can act as an efficient optical switch. Researche... » read more

System Bits: Oct. 22

By Ann Mutschler - 22 Oct, 2013 - Comments: 0

Untangled nanotubes Carbon nanotubes are lightweight, strong and conduct electricity, which make them ideal components in new electronics devices, such as tablet computers and touchscreen phones, but cannot be used without being separated out from their natural tangled state. Researchers from Imperial College London have developed a way to unravel and apply carbon nanotubes in the laboratory a... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 8

By Ann Mutschler - 08 Oct, 2013 - Comments: 0

How light interacts with gold nanostructures With the potential to possibly increase the efficiency of solar cells and photo detectors, University of Manchester researchers have discovered that graphene can be used to investigate how light interacts with nano-antennas. The team, which also included researchers from Freie Universität Berlin and Imperial College London, have shown that graph... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 1

By Ann Mutschler - 01 Oct, 2013 - Comments: 0

First Computer Based On Carbon Nanotubes Pointing toward a new generation of energy-efficient electronics, a team of Stanford engineers has built a basic computer using carbon nanotubes (CNT), a semiconductor material that has the potential to launch a new generation of electronic devices that run faster, while using less energy, than those made from silicon chips. People have been talking ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Aug. 27

By Mark LaPedus - 27 Aug, 2013 - Comments: 0

Growing tubes Single-wall carbon nanotubes could one day be used in electronics, optoelectronics, biomedical imaging and other applications. But the synthesis of nanotubes with defined chiralities has been a stumbling block. A chiral molecule is a molecule that has a non-superposable mirror image. The University of Southern California has shown that chirality-pure short nanotubes can be use... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer