From Lab To Fab: Increasing Pressure To Fuse IC Processes


Test, metrology, and inspection are essential for both the lab and the fab, but fusing them together so that data created in one is easily transferred to the other is a massive challenge. The chip industry has been striving to bridge these separate worlds for years, but the economics, speed, and complexity of change require a new approach. The never-ending push toward smaller, better-defined... » read more

Challenges In Packaging 5G And 6G


Millimeter wave frequencies are essential for transferring more data more quickly, but they also require different packaging technology to minimize loss and drift. That opens up a number of tradeoffs around antenna in package, antenna on package, flexible circuits, and different substrates. Curtis Zwenger, vice president of R&D at Amkor Technology, talks about a host of new challenges rangi... » read more

RF Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer Technologies: Latest Technology & Future Develop Opportunities


A new technical paper titled "RF Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer for Energy Autonomous Wireless Devices and RFIDs" was published by researchers at Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Universidade de Aveiro, The Hague, McGill University, University of Bordeaux, Polytechnique Montreal, and others. Abstract: "Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting and wireless power transmission (... » read more

The Development Of Front-End Module For 5G Millimeter-Wave Device Testing


This article describes the development of a front-end module for 5G millimeter-wave device testing. 5G millimeter-wave is planned to be used up to the 53 GHz band. Our challenges are to optimize the performance of our test system up to that frequency band including wide power range of EVM performance, and to add a new one-port S-Parameter measurement function. We describe the elemental technolo... » read more

Making 5G More Reliable


The rollout of 5G is a complex and monumental effort involving multiple separate systems that need to function flawlessly together in real-time, making it difficult to determine where problems might arise, or how and when to test for them. Investments in 5G have been underway for the better part of a decade, and the technology is considered the next huge growth opportunity for mobile devices... » read more

Measuring Frequency Dependence Across 5G mmWave Bands (NIST)


New research paper from NIST, "Methodology for Measuring the Frequency Dependence of Multipath Channels Across the Millimeter-Wave Spectrum." Abstract "Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications promise Gigabit/s data rates thanks to the availability of large swaths of bandwidth between 10–100 GHz. Although cellular operators prefer the lower portions of the spectrum due to popular belief ... » read more

Tile-based massively scalable MIMO and phased arrays for 5G/B5G-enabled smart skins and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces


New technical paper from Georgia Tech. Abstract "This work presents a novel tile based approach to constructing, in a modular fashion, massively scalable MIMO and phased arrays for 5G/B5G millimeter-wave smart skins and large-area reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for Smart Cities and IoT applications. A proof-of-concept 29 GHz 32 elements phased array utilizing 2×2 “8-element subarr... » read more

The Gargantuan 5G Chip Challenge


Blazing fast upload and download speeds for cellular data are coming, but making the technology function as expected throughout its expected lifetime is an enormous challenge that will require substantial changes across the entire chip ecosystem. While sub-6GHz is an evolutionary step from 4G LTE, the real promise of 5G kicks in with millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology. But these higher-freq... » read more

5G Chips Add Test Challenges


The advent of chips supporting millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G signals is creating a new set of design and testing challenges. Effects that could be ignored at lower frequencies are now important. Performing high-volume test of RF chips will require much more from automated test equipment (ATE) than is required for chips operating below 6 GHz. “MmWave design is a pretty old thing,” said Y... » read more

Dealing With Two Very Different Sides Of 5G


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss 5G reliability with Anthony Lord, director of RF product marketing at FormFactor; Noam Brousard, system vice president at proteanTecs; Andre van de Geijn, business development manager at yieldHUB; and David Hall, head of semiconductor marketing at National Instruments. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. To view part one of this discussi... » read more

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