Many Chiplet Challenges Ahead


Over the past couple of months, Semiconductor Engineering has looked into several aspects of 2.5D and 3D system design, the emerging standards and steps that the industry is taking to make this more broadly adopted. This final article focuses on the potential problems and what remains to be addressed before the technology becomes sustainable to the mass market. Advanced packaging is seen as ... » read more

Evaluate ESD Robustness With Cell-Based P2P/CD Verification


Detecting and verifying an ESD structure can be challenging for designers without specialized ESD experience. The Calibre PERC reliability platform offers cell-based P2P and CD checks that can be used to quickly, accurately, and easily evaluate ESD robustness without the need for advanced ESD expertise. To read more, click here. » read more

ESD P2P And CD Verification Doesn’t Have To Be Hard


As a designer or verification engineer, you’re fighting the effects of electrostatic discharge (ESD) in your integrated circuit (IC) designs all the time. ESD is one of those frustrating issues that can challenge even the most experienced designers. Once an IC is in the market, unexpected electrical shorts will cause immediate failure or dielectric breakdown will result in gradual circuit deg... » read more

Multiphysics Reliability Signoff For Next-Generation Automotive Electronics Systems


Automotive electronics systems depend on an ever-increasing number of electronic sensors and processing elements, which allow for 360-degree surveillance and object identification/classification. Designing and verifying these systems is, however, as complex as the systems themselves. This white paper examines how automotive chip designers can achieve the stringent safety and reliability requ... » read more

Is Common Resistance Affecting Your Analog Design Reliability And Performance?


Integrated circuit (IC) design reliability has always been important and essential to market success. After all, if no one could count on your product to operate as designed, and for as long as intended, there wouldn’t be many buyers! However, given the increase in the types and complexity of design applications, coupled with the increasing technological challenge of manufacturing at advance... » read more

ESD Requirements Are Changing


Standards for specifying a chip’s ability to withstand electrostatic discharge (ESD) are changing – in some cases, getting tougher, and in others, easing up. ESD protection has been on a path from a one-size-fits-all approach to one where a signal’s usage helps to determine what kind of protection it should get. Protecting chips from ESD damage has been a longstanding part of IC design... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) have sent a letter to officials from the Trump administration, demanding answers about TSMC’s recent announcement to build a fab in Ariz. As reported, TSMC has announced its intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the U.S. The fab, to be built in Arizona, w... » read more

Improving Circuit Reliability


Carey Robertson, product marketing director at Mentor, a Siemens Business, examines reliability at advanced and mainstream nodes, particularly in automotive and industrial applications, what’s driving growing concern about the reliability and fidelity of analog circuits, and the impact of running circuits for longer periods of time under different voltage and environmental conditions. » read more

A Reliable I/O Ring For A Reliable SoC


What is an input/output (I/O) ring, and why should I care about it? If you’re a system-on-chip (SoC) designer, you had better know the answer to that question. SoCs are the darlings of the semiconductor industry—they combine all the typical functionality of a computer (central processing unit (CPU), memory, input/output (I/O) ports, and storage) on a single chip. They’re particularly popu... » read more

Wrestling With High-Speed SerDes


SerDes has emerged as the primary solution in chips where there is a need for fast data movement and limited I/O, but this technology is becoming significantly more challenging to work with as speeds continue to rise to offset the massive increase in data. A Serializer/Deserializer is used to convert parallel data into serial data, allowing designers to speed up data communication without h... » read more

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