Realizing the Benefits of 14/16nm Technologies


The scaling benefits of Moore’s Law are challenging below 28nm. It is no longer a given that the cost per gate will go down at process nodes below 28nm, e.g., 20nm though 14nm and 7nm. Rising design and manufacturing costs are contributing factors to this trend. Meanwhile, the competing trend of fewer but more complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs is reducing the knowledge base of many chip... » read more

Variation Issues Grow Wider And Deeper


Variation is becoming more problematic as chips become increasingly heterogeneous and as they are used in new applications and different locations, sparking concerns about how to solve these issues and what the full impact will be. In the past, variation in semiconductors was considered a foundry issue, typically at the most advanced process node, and largely ignored by most companies. New p... » read more

Planning For 5G And The Edge


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss 5G and edge computing with Rahul Goyal, vice president in the technology and manufacturing group at Intel; John Lee, vice president and general manager of the semiconductor business unit at ANSYS; Rob Aitken, R&D fellow at Arm; and Lluis Paris, director of IP portfolio marketing at TSMC. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. Part one i... » read more

Power Issues Rising For New Applications


Managing power in chips is becoming more difficult across a wide range of applications and process nodes, forcing chipmakers and systems companies to rethink their power strategies and address problems much earlier than in the past. While power has long been a major focus in the mobile space, power-related issues now are spreading well beyond phones and laptop computers. There are several re... » read more

What’s the Right Path For Scaling?


The growing challenges of traditional chip scaling at advanced nodes are prompting the industry to take a harder look at different options for future devices. Scaling is still on the list, with the industry laying plans for 5nm and beyond. But less conventional approaches are becoming more viable and gaining traction, as well, including advanced packaging and in-memory computing. Some option... » read more

Foundries Prepare For Battle At 22nm


After introducing new 22nm processes over the last year or two, foundries are gearing up the technology for production—and preparing for a showdown. GlobalFoundries, Intel, TSMC and UMC are developing and/or expanding their efforts at 22nm amid signs this node could generate substantial business for applications like automotive, IoT and wireless. But foundry customers face some tough choic... » read more

System-Level Testing – The New Paradigm for Semiconductor Quality Control


Covering the history and trends of system-level test for semiconductors, this solution brief discusses: The increasing complexities of testing advanced semiconductor integrated devices across a span of applications: automotive, mobile computing, wearables, and more; Semiconductor trends driving necessary shifts in testing methodologies including SiP, SoC, 3D finFETs, heterogeneous compo... » read more

Building AI SoCs


Ron Lowman, strategic marketing manager at Synopsys, looks at where AI is being used and how to develop chips when the algorithms are in a state of almost constant change. That includes what moves to the edge versus the data center, how algorithms are being compressed, and what techniques are being used to speed up these chips and reduce power. https://youtu.be/d32jtdFwpcE    ... » read more

Power Issues Grow For Cloud Chips


Performance levels in traditional or hyperscale data centers are being limited by power and heat caused by an increasing number of processors, memory, disk and operating systems within servers. The problem is so complex and intertwined, though, that solving it requires a series of steps that hopefully add up to a significant reduction across a system. But at 7nm and below, predicting exactly... » read more

Thermal Impact On Reliability At 7/5nm


Haroon Chaudhri, director of RedHawk Analysis Fusion at Synopsys, talks about why thermal analysis is shifting left in the design cycle and why this is so critical at the most advanced process nodes. https://youtu.be/wjkrEFLb2vY » read more

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