Blog Review: April 19


Synopsys' Soren Smidstrup and Kerim Genc explore how materials modeling helps battery designers explore the wide playing field for new battery materials and optimize performance by co-designing the structure and chemistry of new batteries, ultimately shortening development time and cost. Siemens' Stephen Chavez finds that enabling multiple engineers to work simultaneously within the same PCB... » read more

Blog Review: March 29


Siemens' Heather George suggests adopting a shift-left strategy for complex designs that integrate multiple dies into a package and examines the challenges and opportunities for performing comprehensive tests on 2.5D and 3D IC designs. Synopsys' Shekhar Kapoor notes that when considering whether a system will perform as intended, techniques that work well for monolithic SoCs may not be as we... » read more

A Comparative Evaluation Of DRAM Bit-Line Spacer Integration Schemes


With decreasing dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) cell sizes, DRAM process development has become increasingly difficult. Bit-line (BL) sensing margins and refresh times have become problematic as cell sizes have decreased, due to an increase in BL parasitic capacitance (Cb). The main factor impacting Cb is the parasitic capacitance between the BL and the node contact (CBL-NC) [1]. To reduce ... » read more

Blog Review: March 1


Siemens EDA's Chris Spear explains the UVM Factory and how it can facilitate collaboration by enabling injection of new features without affecting your team. Cadence's Paul McLellan looks at efforts to ensure chiplets from different companies work together, particularly when the creating companies didn't pre-plan for those specific chiplets to work together, as well as the problems of failur... » read more

The Other Side Of The Wafer: The Latest Developments In Backside Power Delivery


At the beginning of my career in semiconductor equipment, the backside of the wafer was a source of anxiety. In one memorable instance in my early career, several wafers flew off a robot blade during a wafer transfer. After cleaning up the mess, we remembered that a variety of thin films could be deposited on the wafer backside, which could decrease its friction coefficient. Slowing down the wa... » read more

Blog Review: Feb. 8


Cadence's Sanjeet Kumar points to key changes and optimizations that are done for USB3 Gen T compared to USB3 Gen X tunneling in order to minimize tunnel overhead and maximize USB3 throughput. Siemens EDA's Harry Foster considers the effectiveness of IC and ASIC verification by looking at schedule overruns, number of required spins, and classification of functional bugs. Synopsys' Chris C... » read more

Big Changes Ahead For Chip Technology And Industry Dynamics


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the impact of customization and advanced packaging, and concerns about reliability and geopolitical rivalries with Martin van den Brink, president and CTO of ASML; Luc Van den Hove, CEO of imec; David Fried, vice president of computational products at Lam Research; and Ankur Gupta, vice president and general manager of the test group and lifecycle s... » read more

Collaboration Widens Among Big Chip Companies


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the growing need for collaboration among equipment and tools vendors, the impact of systems companies and increases in complexity, and how to handle a push for more customization while controlling costs, with Martin van den Brink, president and CTO of ASML; Luc Van den Hove, CEO of imec; David Fried, vice president of computati... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 18


Synopsys' Dana Neustadter, Sara Zafar Jafarzadeh, and Ruud Derwig argue that we are already at an inflection point for post-quantum security because devices and infrastructure systems with longer life cycles or communicating data that must be kept confidential for an extended period need to have a path towards quantum-safe solutions. Siemens EDA's Harry Foster looks at trends in adoption of ... » read more

Metrology Options Increase As Device Needs Shift


Semiconductor fabs are taking an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to solving tough metrology and yield management challenges, combining tools, processes, and other technologies as the chip industry transitions to nanosheet transistors on the front end and heterogenous integration on the back end. Optical and e-beam tools are being extended, while X-ray inspection is being added on a case-by-... » read more

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