New Challenges For Connected Vehicles


Connected vehicles are all about convenience and safety. Modern vehicles are connected to the Internet via wireless networks, consumer apps, and infotainment systems, and there is work underway to connect them over 5G to guided driving. But there also are challenges to making all of this work securely, safely, and as expected throughout the expected lifetimes of chips and systems. The goal i... » read more

Auto Chipmakers Dig Down To 10ppb


How do engineers deliver 10 defective parts per billion (Dppb) to auto makers if they only screen 1 million parts per year? Answer: By comprehending failure mechanisms and proactively screening for them. Modern automobiles contain nearly 1,000 ICs that must perform over the vehicle’s life (15 years). This drives quality expectations ever higher. While 10 Dppm used to be a solid benchmark, ... » read more

Power Grids Under Attack


Cyberattacks are becoming as troublesome to the electrical power grid as natural disasters, and the problem is growing worse as these grids become more connected and smarter. Unlike in the past, when a power outage affected just the electricity supplied to homes and businesses, power grids are becoming core elements of smart cities, infrastructure, and safety-related services. Without power,... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 14


3D-SOCs At this week’s IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), a plethora of companies, R&D organizations and universities presented papers on the latest and greatest technologies. One of the themes at IEDM is advanced packaging, a technology enables an IC vendor to boost the performance of a chip. Advanced forms of packaging also enables new 3D-like chip architectures. Fo... » read more

Zonal Architectures Play Key Role In Vehicle Security


The automotive ecosystem is starting to shift toward zonal architectures, making vehicle functionality less dependent on the underlying hardware and allowing more flexibility in what gets processed where. The impact of that shift is both broad and significant. For carmakers, it could lead to hardware consolidation and more options for failovers in case something goes wrong with any system in... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 26


GaN finFETs, scaling GaN At the upcoming IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco, a slew of entities will present papers on the latest technologies in R&D. The event, to be held Dec. 11–15, involve papers on advanced packaging, CMOS image sensors, interconnects, transistors, power devices and other technologies. At IEDM, Intel will present a paper on a GaN-... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: July 13


Heterogenous III-V packaging At the recent 2021 IEEE 71st Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), a group presented a paper on the development of a wafer-level fan-out package using heterogenous III-V devices. This paper deals with the packaging of two III-V chips for use in RF transceiver applications in base stations. III-V Lab, CEA-Leti, Thales and United Monolithic Semic... » read more

IoT Security: Confusing And Fragmented


Security regulations for Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices are evolving around the world, but there is no consistent set of requirements that can be applied globally — and there may never be. What exists today is a patchwork of certification labs and logos. That makes it difficult for IoT-device designers to know where to get their security blessed. Unlike in data centers, where there is a ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: June 22


5G metasurface antennas At the recent 2021 IEEE 71st Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) presented a paper on a low-profile broadband metasurface antenna for 5G antenna-in-package applications. The National Center for Advanced Packaging and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences also contri... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Fab tools TEL plans to ship its leading-edge coater/developer system to the joint Imec-ASML research lab, which is working on high-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The equipment will be integrated with the EXE:5000, ASML’s next-generation high-NA EUV lithography system. The 0.55 numerical aperture (NA) tool is slated to be operational in 2023. Today's EUV is in production, but there... » read more

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