The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Fab tools Lam Research held an analyst event this week. The company indicated that the industry is in the midst of a memory boom, including both DRAM and 3D NAND. According to Amit Daryanani, an analyst with RBC, here was one of the big takeaways at the event: “The memory spend portion of WFE is more sustainable than previously assumed due to end-market drivers such as big data, automation, ... » read more

The Rising Value Of Data


The volume of data being generated by a spectrum of devices continues to skyrocket. Now the question is what can be done with that data. By Cisco's estimates, traffic on the Internet will be 3.3 zetabytes per year by 2021, up from 1.2 zetabytes in 2016. And if that isn't enough, the flow of data isn't consistent. Traffic on the busiest 60-minute period in a day increased 51% in 2016, compare... » read more

Module Testing Adds New Challenges


System-in-package (SiP) and other advanced packaging technologies are putting more components together in tighter spaces than previously seen. Often these packages are contained in a module, which is something more than a chip package and a great deal smaller than most printed circuit boards. Testing these modules often requires system-level test. These modules typically will be inserted int... » read more

Design Challenges Of Next-Generation AESA Radar


Phased-array antennas, first used in military radar systems, are gaining in popularity for a variety of applications with new active electronically-scanned arrays (AESAs) being used for radar systems in satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles. As these systems are deployed, meeting size and performance requirements are critical. To support AESA radar development efforts, electronic design autom... » read more

Women In Engineering


While I’ve been involved in Women In Microwaves for many years now, beginning in 2011 with my chairmanship of what was then only a WIM social hour at IMS, until this year I had never participated in the WIM panel sessions that were expanded from the social hour starting several years ago. In Hawaii this year that changed when I was invited to join in the 2017 WIM panel, “Inspiring the Next ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers The situation between Toshiba and its fab partner, Western Digital (WD), has gone from bad to worse. As reported, troubled Toshiba recently selected a group to buy its memory business. The consortium includes the Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, the Development Bank of Japan and Bain Capital. Rival SK Hynix is also part of the group. WD attempted but failed to buy the unit, an... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 2


In a video, Cadence's Marc Greenberg describes the post-package repair capability in LPDDR4 and why it's important for future LP/DDR5 memories. Synopsys' Kiran Vittal looks at formal, machine learning, and when computers beat humans at games. Mentor's Matt Knowles digs into how cell-aware diagnosis works and why it can find tricky finFET defects. ARM's Freddi Jeffries digs into why com... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers UMC has generated sales from its recently-announced 14nm finFET technology. The foundry vendor also plans to enter the 22nm process technology market. UMC will join other players in the 22nm arena, such as GlobalFoundries, Intel and TSMC. “So we do have a plan to introduce our 22nm as well and it will be available around 2018,” said Jason Wang, the newly appointed co-president o... » read more

Blog Review: July 26


Mentor's Dan Driscoll digs into designing for safety and security on the Xilinx UltraScale+ MPSoC and the different mechanisms that support subsystem isolation. Cadence's Paul McLellan listens in on a talk by Bosch's Volkmar Denner on the future of communications and AI in connected autos. Synopsys' Robert Vamosi points to a recently-discovered vulnerability that could be present in thous... » read more

Blog Review: July 12


Mentor's Puneet Sinha points to five big engineering stumbling blocks in building commercially-viable autonomous vehicles. Synopsys' Anders Nordstrom checks out some exotic applications of formal verification. Cadence's Paul McLellan listens in on a talk by Cadence's Michelle (Xuehong) Mao on how the company's deep neural network, CactusNet, works for optimizing network architecture. S... » read more

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