Managing EDA’s Rapid Growth Expectations


The EDA industry has been doing very well recently, but how long this run will continue is a matter of debate. EDA is an industry ripe for disruption due to rapid changes in chip architectures, end markets, and a long list of new technologies. In addition, recent geopolitical tensions are bringing a lot more attention to this small sector upon which the whole semiconductor industry rests. De... » read more

Mini-Consortia Forming Around Chiplets


Mini-consortia for chiplets are sprouting up across the industry, driven by demands for increasing customization in tight market windows and fueled by combinations of hardened IP that have been proven in silicon. These loosely aligned partnerships are working to develop LEGO-like integration models for highly specific applications and end markets. But they all are starting small, because it'... » read more

Uneven Circuit Aging Becoming A Bigger Problem


Circuit aging is emerging as a first-order design challenge as engineering teams look for new ways to improve reliability and ensure the functionality of chips throughout their expected lifetimes. The need for reliability is obvious in data centers and automobiles, where a chip failure could result in downtime or injury. It also is increasingly important in mobile and consumer electronics, w... » read more

Chiplets Taking Root As Silicon-Proven Hard IP


Chiplets are all the rage today, and for good reason. With the various ways to design a semiconductor-based system today, IP reuse via chiplets appears to be an effective and feasible solution, and a potentially low-cost alternative to shrinking everything to the latest process node. To enable faster time to market, common IP or technology that already has been silicon-proven can be utilized... » read more

Growing System Complexity Drives More IP Reuse


IP reuse of both third-party and internal IP is growing, but it's also becoming more complex to manage. There is more IP being used, and more systems into which it needs to be integrated, combined with other IP, and tracked throughout an organization. In some cases, this is an economic requirement. In others, designs are so complex that engineering teams need to focus on where they will make... » read more

On The Reverse Breakdown Behavior Of GaAs PIN Diodes For High Power Applications


In the field of power electronics, the compound semiconductors gallium nitride and silicon carbide are dominating the market. Due to its beneficial properties, gallium arsenide is gaining more and more importance. The aim is to manufacture devices based on gallium arsenide for use in power electronics with comparable or better properties, but at lower costs. In this work, a first GaAs PIN diode... » read more

Edge AI And Chiplets


In the near future, more edge artificial intelligence (AI) solutions will find their way into our lives. This will be especially true in the private sector for applications in the field of voice input and analysis of camera data, which will become well-established. These application areas require powerful AI hardware to be able to process the corresponding continuously accumulating data volumes... » read more

Improving Chip Efficiency, Reliability, And Adaptability


Peter Schneider, director of Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits' Engineering of Adaptive Systems Division, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about new models and approaches for ensuring the integrity and responsiveness of systems, and how this can be done within a given power budget and at various speeds. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Where are y... » read more

Holistic Die-to-Die Interface Design Methodology For 2.5-D Multi-Chip-Module Systems


More than Moore technologies can be supported by system level diversification enabled by chiplet based integrated systems within multi-chip-modules (MCM) and silicon interposer based 2.5D systems. The division of large system-on-chip dies into smaller chiplets with different technology nodes specific to the chiplet application requirement enables the performance enhancement at system level whil... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Chip design Fraunhofer IIS/EAS implemented the Bunch of Wires (BoW) standard-based interface IP from the Open Compute Project (OCP) on Samsung's 5nm technology. The effort is intended to make chiplets more feasible for products with small and medium-sized production runs and determine the need for additional uniform standards in the future, such as for die-to-die bonding. “As part of t... » read more

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