Designing Chips In A ‘Lawless’ Industry

By Ed Sperling - 02 Aug, 2021 - Comments: 2

The guideposts for designing chips are disappearing or becoming less relevant. While engineers today have many more options for customizing a design, they have little direction about what works best for specific applications or what the return on investment will be for those efforts. For chip architects, this is proving to be an embarrassment of riches. However, that design freedom comes wit... » read more

200mm Demand Surges

By Mark LaPedus - 17 Dec, 2020 - Comments: 1

A surge in demand for various chips is causing shortages for select 200mm foundry capacity as well as 200mm fab equipment, and it shows no signs of abating in 2021. Foundry customers will face a shortfall of 200mm capacity at select foundries at least in the first half of 2021, and perhaps beyond. Those customers will need to plan ahead to ensure they obtain enough 200mm capacity in 2021. Ot... » read more

Key Drivers In New Chip Industry Outlook

By Ed Sperling - 04 May, 2020 - Comments: 0

How well the semiconductor industry fares over the next 12 to 24 months depends upon the evolution of a virus. That alone will determine the correct model for an economic rebound — V, U, extended U, or maybe even a double U. But what's also becoming clear is those models don't apply uniformly to all sectors or sub-sectors of the semiconductor industry. Looked at as a whole, the entire indu... » read more

Power-Hungry Safety And Security

By Brian Bailey - 09 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

There is a price to pay for everything. When it comes to adding safety and security into a device, the costs in terms of power and area can be significant, but if the task is taken seriously, those costs can be managed and minimized. New analysis and implementation tools are coming to market that can also help to keep the costs contained. But it also requires the right mindset. As more indus... » read more

Reliability In Automotive Chips

By Ed Sperling - 17 Feb, 2020 - Comments: 0

Roland Jancke, head of department for design methodology at Fraunhofer IIS’ Engineering of Adaptive Systems Division, looks at how to ensure that chips used in cars are reliable over extended periods of use, how mission profiles vary depending upon where they are used, and why it’s important to understand what chips developed at the latest nodes can really be used for and how they will be ... » read more

More Rare Earth Rumblings

By Mark LaPedus - 18 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 4

It’s time to look at the market for rare earths again. Rare earths are chemical elements found in the Earth’s crust. These elements, which are critical, are used in cars, consumer electronics, computers, communications, clean energy and defense systems. So why worry about them? China produces and controls 80% of the world’s rare earths. Other nations depend on China for these materi... » read more

Accelerate Computer Vision Design Using High-Level Synthesis

By Mentor, a Siemens Business - 25 Jul, 2018 - Comments: 0

Computer vision solutions are all around us, in cars, consumer products, security, retail, and agriculture. But, designing these solutions is not easy, mainly because of constant algorithm upgrades and related requirements changes. This means that wherever the team is in the RTL creation and verification flow, they might have to start over, which can cause an unacceptable delay in the productio... » read more

The Financial Justification For System-Level Test

By Astronics - 23 Jul, 2018 - Comments: 0

Three unique trends are currently transforming high-volume manufacturing in the semiconductor industry: The increasing complexity of chip architectures (e.g., FinFET, heterogeneous integration); The explosion in the breadth and ubiquity of consumer electronics (e.g. IoT, mobile, and automotive), and Consumer expectations of a constant stream of newer, cheaper, more advanced nodes. ... » read more

New Roadmap For Electronics

By Ed Sperling - 19 Jul, 2018 - Comments: 0

Tech Talk: Melissa Grupen-Shemansky, CTO for SEMI’s FlexTech Group and Advanced Packaging program, looks at what’s changing now that Moore’s Law is slowing, and how packaging is changing as the traditional physical boundaries of electronics begin breaking down. https://youtu.be/UpH1m8Oru90 » read more

Advanced Packaging Picks Up Steam

By Jeff Dorsch - 10 Jul, 2017 - Comments: 0

The semiconductor industry’s push toward continued miniaturization and increasing complexity is driving wider adoption of system-in-package (SiP) technology. One of the big benefits of [getkc id="199" kc_name="SiP"] is that it allows more features to be squeezed into ever-smaller form factors, such as wearable gadgets and medical implants. So while the individual chips in this package may ... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →

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

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

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?