Startup Funding: October 2020


October 2020 was a big month for startups across the automotive space, with sizeable funding all around. Three startups based out of China brought in over $100M apiece for ADAS and autonomous driving, and a fourth U.S.-based startup saw $125M investment for simulating and testing autonomous driving systems. Two electric vehicle manufacturers also received $100M+ rounds. Collectively, the auto c... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 20


Benchmarking quantum layout synthesis Computer scientists at the University of California Los Angeles found that current compilers for quantum computers are inhibiting optimal performance and argue that better quantum compilation design could help improve computation speeds up to 45 times. The team designed a family of benchmark quantum circuits with known optimal depths or sizes, which cou... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 15


Higher-res lidar Researchers from Purdue University and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) devised a way to improve lidar and provide higher-resolution detection of nearby fast-moving objects through mechanical control and modulation of light on a silicon chip. "Frequency modulated continuous wave" (FMCW) lidar detects objects by scanning laser light from the top of a vehicl... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 9


Smaller, cheaper integrated photonics Researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) developed a way to integrate an optical frequency comb on a silicon photonic chip. Optical frequency combs are collections of equally spaced frequencies of laser light (so called because when pl... » read more

New Architectures, Much Faster Chips


The chip industry is making progress in multiple physical dimensions and with multiple architectural approaches, setting the stage for huge performance increases based on more modular and heterogeneous designs, new advanced packaging options, and continued scaling of digital logic for at least a couple more process nodes. A number of these changes have been discussed in recent conferences. I... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 18


Flexible, hole-filled films Researchers from Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) and Hongik University propose a simple way to make flexible electrodes and thin film transistors last longer: adding lots of tiny holes. A major problem with flexible electronics is the formation of microscopic cracks after repeated bending which can cause the device to lose its conducti... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: July 28


Programmable photonics Researchers from the University of Southampton developed a method for making programmable  integrated switching units on a silicon photonics chip. By using a generic optical circuit that can be fabricated in bulk then later programmed for specific applications, the team hopes to reduce production costs. "Silicon photonics is capable of integrating optical devices and... » read more

Simulation Of Semiconductor Edge-Emitting Lasers


By Peter Hallschmid and Dylan McGuire The demand for photonics technology continues to grow with popular laser applications including semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), Fabry-Perot (FP) devices and distributed feedback (DFB) lasers. The next episode of Ansys’ photonics webinar series outlines the latest Ansys Lumerical flows and products for simulating and generating compact mod... » read more

Startup Funding: June 2020


Two Chinese startups drew big investment as the country aims to become more semiconductor independent as trade restrictions continue. One company deals in wafers, packaging, and IC design, while the other is focused on AI chips. Quantum computing startups didn't see large investments this month, as most are still very young companies, but the number of them grew with a new university spin-out e... » read more

Test Setup Optimization And Automation For Accurate Silicon Photonics Wafer Acceptance Production Tests


Implementing energy-efficient optical transceiver modules with silicon photonics (SiPh) and 3DIC technologies will help alleviate the increasing energy consumption for hyperscale data centers. To facilitate effective 3DIC heterogenous integration of these photonics integrated circuits for optical transceivers, high precision, repeatable and reliable SiPh wafer acceptance tests are essential and... » read more

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