Trump Blocks Broadcom Bid for Qualcomm


President Trump has blocked Broadcom’s unsolicited, $117 billion takeover bid for Qualcomm, citing national security concerns. The president acted on the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which cited the possibility of Qualcomm’s chip technology being compromised by Chinese interests, if it were acquired by Singapore-based Broadcom. The move is t... » read more

Meeting The Challenges Of The 2018 National Defense Strategy


In Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy: Sharpening the American Military’s Competitive Edge, he provides a critical framework for driving “urgent change at significant scale.” This paper describes the role that Cadence can play in assisting the nation and its partners in achieving that urgency and scale of change called for in the vision and ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 6


GaN trusted foundry HRL Laboratories--an R&D venture between Boeing and General Motors--has launched a new foundry service for use in advanced millimeter-wave (mmWave) gallium-nitride (GaN) technology applications. HRL’s process, called T3-GaN, is a high-electron-mobility transistor technology. It will enable the fabrication of GaN-based monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs... » read more

Chiplets Gaining Steam


Building chips from pre-verified chiplets is beginning to gain traction as a way of cutting costs and reducing time to market for heterogeneous designs. The chiplet concept has been on the drawing board for some time, but it has been viewed more as a possible future direction than a necessary solution. That perception is beginning to change as complexity rises, particularly at advanced nodes... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: June 6


Molecular black holes A group of researchers have used an ultra-bright pulse of X-ray light to hit a tiny atom in a molecule, causing the structure to explode and create a “molecular black hole.” The molecular black hole is different than a black hole in space, however. A black hole is a region in space, which has a gravitational field so strong that no matter or light can escape it. ... » read more

Verification And The IoT


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss what impact the IoT will have on the design cycle, with Christopher Lawless, director of external customer acceleration in [getentity id="22846" e_name="Intel"]'s Software Services Group; David Lacey, design and verification technologist at Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Jim Hogan, managing partner at Vista Ventures; Frank Schirrmeister, senior group d... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers Samsung has formed a new foundry division and rolled out a range of new processes. Specifically, Samsung plans to develop 8nm, 7nm, 6nm, 5nm and 4nm. It also introduced an 18nm FD-SOI technology. GlobalFoundries has provided more details about its 300mm fab plans in China. The company and the Chengdu municipality have announced an investment to develop an ecosystem for its 22nm ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Jan. 3


3D printed military drones The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has begun testing 3D printed drones for use in on-demand military missions. The technology, called the On-Demand Small Unmanned Aircraft System (ODSUAS), enables a soldier to input the mission requirements in software. Then, a 3D printer devises the optimal configuration for an unmanned aerial vehicle. And it’s printed and deliv... » read more

RF GaN Gains Steam


The RF [getkc id="217" kc_name="gallium nitride"] (GaN) device market is heating up amid the need for more performance with better power densities in a range of systems, such as infrastructure equipment, missile defense and radar. On one front, for example, RF GaN is beginning to displace a silicon-based technology for the power amplifier sockets in today’s wireless base stations. GaN is m... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


MEMS manufacturing A*STAR’s Institute of Microelectronics (IME) in Singapore has launched its third consortium to develop MEMS technologies. This would allow MEMS sensor devices to achieve better performance, higher power efficiency and a smaller form factor. The MEMS Consortium III consists of the following companies: Applied Materials, Coventor, Delta Electronics, GlobalFoundries, InvenS... » read more

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