State-Of-The-Art Architectures for Analog Low-Dropout Voltage Regulators


A new technical paper titled "Evaluation and Perspective of Analog Low-Dropout Voltage Regulators: A Review" was published by researchers at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, University of Malaya, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, and University of Macau. Abstract: "Low-dropout regulators (LDOs) are widely adopted in power management integrated circuits (PMICs) and serve as... » read more

End In Sight For Chip Shortages?


The current wave of semiconductor and IC packaging shortages is expected to extend well into 2022, but there are also signs that supply may finally catch up with demand. The same is true for manufacturing capacity, materials and equipment in both the semiconductor and packaging sectors. Nonetheless, after a period of shortages in all segments, the current school of thought is that chip suppl... » read more

Robust Variation-Aware Smart Power Designs For Silicon Success


Power management ICs (PMICs) is a rapidly growing segment in the semiconductor industry. The growth has been fueled by the demand for Smart Power applications that include wearable electronics, mobile computing platforms, printers, hard disk drives (HDD), IoT devices, and the full array of automotive applications. According to a report from market research firm Coherent Market Insights, the gl... » read more

Chip Shortages Grow For Mature Nodes


The current wave of chip shortages is expected to last for the foreseeable future, particularly for a growing list of critical devices produced in mature process nodes. Chips manufactured at mature nodes typically fall under the radar, but they are used in nearly every electronic device, including appliances, cars, computers, displays, industrial equipment, smartphones, and TVs. Many of thes... » read more

Energy Harvesting Shows New Signs of Life


Energy harvesting is seeing renewed activity in select markets, years after some high-profile attempts to build this into consumer electronics stalled out. Costs, manufacturing challenges, and market resistance kept this technology from moving forward, more than a decade after it was being touted as the best way forward for consumer electronics and devices that were hard to access. While sol... » read more

Pandemics And Panic Chip Buying


U.S.-China trade tensions are creating uncertainty in the semiconductor market, but it is also causing another event right now—panic chip buying. At present, some but not all foundry vendors are seeing “rush orders” for select products and are running their fabs at full capacity. It’s not just leading-edge devices, but also mature technologies. A surge of chip orders started in Ma... » read more

Multiphysics Simulations For Power Management ICs


This application brief describes Ansys Totem’s multiphysics capabilities to help you analyze power, thermal and reliability challenges in highly complex power management ICs (PMIC devices). You will understand why Totem’s many features including full-chip capacity, flexible GUI and layout-driven simulation and debug capabilities make it the ideal platform for identifying design issues. From... » read more

Transient Thermal Analysis For M.2 SSD Thermal Throttling: Detailed CFD Model vs Network-Based Model


Solid State Drive (SSD) technology continues to advance toward smaller footprints with higher bandwidth and adoption of new I/O interfaces in the PC market segment. Power performance requirements are tightening in the design process to address specific requirement along with the development of SSD technology. To meet this aggressive requirement of performance, one major issue is thermal throttl... » read more

Panel Fan-out Ramps, Challenges Remain


After years of R&D, panel-level fan-out packaging is finally beginning to ramp up in the market, at least in limited volumes for a few vendors. However, panel-level fan-out, which is an advanced form of today’s fan-out packaging, still faces several technical and cost challenges to bring this technology into the mainstream or high-volume manufacturing. Moreover, several companies are d... » read more

2.5D, FO-WLP Issues Come Into Focus


Advanced packaging is beginning to take off after years of hype, spurred by 2.5D implementations in high-performance markets and fan-out wafer-level packaging for a wide array of applications. There are now more players viewing packaging as another frontier driving innovation. But perhaps a more telling sign is that large foundries in Taiwan have begun offering packaging services to customer... » read more

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