Promising Materials Beyond Silicon (TI, AIXTRON, imec)


A new technical paper titled "Future materials for beyond Si integrated circuits: a Perspective" was published by researchers at Texas Instruments, AIXTRON SE and imec. Abstract: "The integration of novel materials has been pivotal in advancing Si-based devices ever since Si became the preferred material for transistors, and later, integrated circuits. New materials have rapidly been adopte... » read more

SRAM Scaling Issues, And What Comes Next


The inability of SRAM to scale has challenged power and performance goals forcing the design ecosystem to come up with strategies that range from hardware innovations to re-thinking design layouts. At the same time, despite the age of its initial design and its current scaling limitations, SRAM has become the workhorse memory for AI. SRAM, and its slightly younger cousin DRAM, have always co... » read more

Data Retention Performance Of 0.13µm F-RAM Memory


F-RAM (Ferroelectric random access memory) is a non-volatile memory that uses a ferroelectric capacitor for storing data. It offers higher write speeds over flash/EEPROM. This white paper provides a brief overview of data retention performance of F-RAM memory. Click here for more. » read more

Data Retention Performance Of 0.13-μm F-RAM Memory


F-RAM (Ferroelectric random access memory) is a non-volatile memory that uses a ferroelectric capacitor for storing data. It offers higher write speeds over flash/EEPROM. This white paper provides a brief overview of data retention performance of F-RAM memory. Click here to read more. » read more

More Errors, More Correction in Memories


As memory bit cells of any type become smaller, bit error rates increase due to lower margins and process variation. This can be dealt with using error correction to account for and correct bit errors, but as more sophisticated error-correction codes (ECC) are used, it requires more silicon area, which in turn drives up the cost. Given this trend, the looming question is whether the cost of ... » read more

Blog Review: July 15


Synopsys' Mike Borza explains DARPA's Automatic Implementation of Secure Silicon (AISS) program and why prioritizing security in the chip development and manufacturing process is so important. Mentor's Jacob Wiltgen checks out how accurate early cycle safety analysis, aided by automation, can help avoid the problem of unmet safety goals and expensive later cycle iterations. Cadence's Paul... » read more

Embedded Phase-Change Memory Emerges


The next-generation memory market for embedded applications is becoming more crowded as another technology emerges in the arena—embedded phase-change memory. Phase-change memory is not new and has been in the works for decades. But the technology has taken longer to commercialize amid a number of technical and cost challenges. Phase-change memory, a nonvolatile memory type that stores data... » read more

Foundries See Growth, New Issues In 2019


The silicon foundry business is poised for growth in 2019, although the industry faces several challenges across a number of market segments next year. Generally, foundry vendors saw steady growth in 2018, but many are ending the year on a sour note. Weak demand for Apple’s new iPhone XR and a downturn in the cryptocurrency market have impacted several IC suppliers and foundries, causing t... » read more

Next-Gen Memory Ramping Up


The next-generation memory market is heating up as vendors ramp a number of new technologies, but there are some challenges in bringing these products into the mainstream. For years, the industry has been working on a variety of memory technologies, including carbon nanotube RAM, FRAM, MRAM, phase-change memory and ReRAM. Some are shipping, while others are in R&D. Each memory type is di... » read more

A New Memory Contender?


Momentum is building for a new class of ferroelectric memories that could alter the next-generation memory landscape. Generally, ferroelectrics are associated with a memory type called ferroelectric RAMs (FRAMs). Rolled out by several vendors in the late 1990s, FRAMs are low-power, nonvolatile devices, but they are also limited to niche applications and unable to scale beyond 130nm. While... » read more

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