tag: PDF Solutions

NVM Reliability Challenges And Tradeoffs
By Bryon Moyer - 13 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

This second of two parts looks at different memories and possible solutions. Part one can be found here. While various NVM technologies, such as PCRAM, MRAM, ReRAM and NRAM share similar high-level traits, their physical renderings are quite different. That provides each with its own set of challenges and solutions. PCRAM has had a fraught history. Initially released by Samsung, Micron, a... » read more

Inside The New Non-Volatile Memories
By Bryon Moyer - 07 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

The search continues for new non-volatile memories (NVMs) to challenge the existing incumbents, but before any technology can be accepted, it must be proven reliable. “Everyone is searching for a universal memory,” says TongSwan Pang, Fujitsu senior marketing manager. "Different technologies have different reliability challenges, and not all of them may be able to operate in automotive g... » read more

Reliability Challenges Grow For 5/3nm
By Ed Sperling And Susan Rambo - 07 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

Ensuring that chips will be reliable at 5nm and 3nm is becoming more difficult due to the introduction of new materials, new transistor structures, and the projected use of these chips in safety- and mission-critical applications. Each of these elements adds its own set of challenges, but they are being compounded by the fact that many of these chips will end up in advanced packages or modul... » read more

The Need For Traceability In Auto Chips
By Anne Meixner - 07 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 4

Someday your car will drive itself to a repair shop for a recall using a scheduling application that is both efficient and can prioritize which vehicles need to be fixed first. But that's still a ways off. Proactive identification of issues is not yet available. To be ready for that, today’s data analytics systems need to begin supporting targeted recalls, enabling predictive maintenance a... » read more

Holistic Yield Improvement Methodology
By PDF Solutions - 06 Apr, 2020 - Comments: 0

As new products and processes are being introduced into IC manufacturing at an accelerated rate, yield learning and ramping are becoming more challenging due to the increased interaction between the design and process. Compared to random defect caused yield losses, systematic yield loss mechanisms are becoming more important, thus initial yield ramping process becomes more challenging. A “hol... » read more

Test Costs Spiking
By Ed Sperling - 10 Mar, 2020 - Comments: 1

The cost of test is rising as a percentage of manufacturing costs, fueled by concerns about reliability of advanced-node designs in cars and data centers, as well as extended lifetimes for chips in those and other markets. For decades, test was limited to a flat 2% of total manufacturing cost, a formula developed prior to the turn of the Millennium after chipmakers and foundries saw the traj... » read more

Grading Chips For Longer Lifetimes
By Ed Sperling - 10 Mar, 2020 - Comments: 0

Figuring out how to grade chips is becoming much more difficult as these chips are used in applications where they are supposed to last for decades rather than just a couple of years. During manufacturing, semiconductors typically are run through a battery of tests involving performance and power, and then priced accordingly. But that is no longer a straightforward process for several reason... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test
By Mark LaPedus - 14 Feb, 2020 - Comments: 0

Chipmakers and OEMs IC Insights has released its rankings of the 25 largest wafer capacity leaders in terms of monthly installed capacity in 200mm-equivalents as of December 2019. Samsung was in first place, followed by TSMC, Micron, SK Hynix, and Kioxia, formerly Toshiba Memory, according to IC Insights. Combined capacity of the top five companies represented 53% of total global wafer capa... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing
By Susan Rambo - 14 Feb, 2020 - Comments: 0

AI/Edge Arm putting AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning (ML) on the Cortex-M processor by offering IP for a microNPU for Cortex-M. The company says in a press release that it will deliver a 480x uplift in ML performance. The new Cortex-M IP is Arm Ethos-U55 NPU, which Arm says is the industry’s first microNPU (neural processing unit). Arm is hoping the new IP will start an expl... » read more

Logic Chip, Heal Thyself
By Susan Rambo And Ed Sperling - 11 Feb, 2020 - Comments: 0

If a single fault can kill a logic chip, that doesn’t bode well for longevity of complex multi-chip systems. Obsolescence in chips is not just an industry ploy to sell more chips. It is a fact of physics that chips don’t last more than a few years, especially if overheated, and hit with higher voltage than it can stand. The testing industry does a great job finding defects during manufac... » read more

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