Chip Industry Talent Shortage Drives Academic Partnerships


Universities around the world are forming partnerships with semiconductor companies and governments to help fill open and future positions, to keep curricula current and relevant, and to update and expand skills for working engineers. Talent shortages repeatedly have been cited as the number one challenge for the chip industry. Behind those concerns are several key drivers, and many more dom... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Susan Rambo, Liz Allan, and Gregory Haley. TSMC rolled out the second version of its 3Dblox, which creates an infrastructure for stacking chiplets and other necessary components in a package, along with a standardized way of achieving that. Two novel features are chiplet mirroring for design reuse, and what is basically sandbox for power and thermal analysis of different design elements. ... » read more

ReRAM Seeks To Replace NOR


Resistive RAM is gaining renewed attention as demand for faster and cheaper non-volatile memory alternatives continues to grow, particularly in applications such as automotive. Embedded flash has long left designers wishing for better write speeds and lower energy consumption, but as the leading edge of that technology shrunk to 28nm, another problem arose. Manufacturing flash memory at thos... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Jesse Allen, Karen Heyman, and Liz Allan The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced $238 million in awards toward establishing eight regional innovation hubs under the CHIPS and Science Act. The hubs aim to accelerate hardware prototyping and "lab-to-fab" transition of semiconductor technologies for secure edge/IoT, 5G/6G, AI hardware, quantum technology, electromagnetic warfare, and ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Gregory Haley, Jesse Allen, and Liz Allan TSMC told equipment vendors to delay deliveries of the most advanced tools due to uncertain demand, according to Reuters. The news drove down stock prices of all the major equipment providers. On the other hand, TSMC said advanced packaging shortages will constrain AI chip shipments for the next 18 months, according to NikkeiAsia. The United St... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $15.5 billion in funding and loans for retooling existing automotive factories for the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and supporting local jobs, plus a notice of intent for $3.5 billion in funding to expand domestic manufacturing of batteries for EVs and the nation’s grid, and for battery materials and components that are currently imported... » read more

Using ML For Improved Fab Scheduling


Expanding fab capacity is slow and expensive even under ideal circumstances. It has been still more difficult in recent years, as pandemic-related shortages have strained equipment supply chains. When integrated circuit demand rises faster than expansions can fill the gap, fabs try to find “hidden” capacity through improved operations. They hope that more efficient workflows will allow e... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


The Biden-Harris Administration announced the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, a cybersecurity certification and labeling program to help consumers choose smart devices less vulnerable to cyberattacks. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is applying to register the Cyber Trust Mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and it would appear on qualifying smart products, including refrigerators,... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Cadence will acquire Rambus' SerDes and memory interface PHY IP business. Rambus will retain its digital IP business, including memory and interface controllers and security IP. “With this transaction, we will increase our focus on market-leading digital IP and chips and expand our roadmap of novel memory solutions to support the continued evolution of the data center and AI,” said Sean Fan... » read more

Governments Begin To Shape Metrology Directions


Disruptions to the global semiconductor supply chain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact in nearly every sector of the worldwide economy, and especially the worldwide semiconductor market. Due to a shortage of chips, the global auto industry alone suffered a $210 billion loss in 2021, accompanied by a 7.7 million unit production drop, according to AlixPartners, a global consulti... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →