Power Semiconductors: A Deep Dive Into Materials, Manufacturing & Business

By The SE Staff - 03 Apr, 2023 - Comments: 0

Whether you’re the owner of the average smartphone, commuting on trains, or driving around in a Tesla, you use power semiconductor devices every day. In a technology-dependent world, these devices are everywhere, and demand for more types of chips using different materials is growing. In the past, most engineers paid little attention to power semiconductors. They were deemed commodity, off... » read more

Safe And Reliable MOSFET Operation In Bidirectional Power Switch (BDPS) Applications

By Infineon - 05 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

The global market for battery-powered applications is rapidly growing, including power tools, service robots, light electric vehicles, and many others. The evolution of switched-mode power supply (SMPS) topologies enables designers to ensure safe charging and discharging of the equipment’s battery using bidirectional converters through the same terminal. However, to meet the safety requiremen... » read more

Gearing Up For Next-Gen Power Semis

By Mark LaPedus - 16 Sep, 2021 - Comments: 0

After years in R&D, several vendors are moving closer to shipping power semiconductors and other products based on next-generation wide-bandgap technologies. These devices leverage the properties of new materials, such as aluminum nitride, diamond, and gallium oxide, and they are also utilized in different structures, such as vertical gallium-nitride power devices. But while many of thes... » read more

Chip Shortages Grow For Mature Nodes

By Mark LaPedus - 22 Jul, 2021 - Comments: 0

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

A Revolution For Power Conversion Systems — CoolSiC MOSFET

By Infineon - 09 Jun, 2021 - Comments: 0

Silicon carbide (SiC) transistors are increasingly used in power converters, placing high demands on the size, weight and/or efficiency. The outstanding material properties of SiC enable the design of fastswitching unipolar devices as opposed to bipolar IGBT devices. Thus, solutions which have been up to now possible in the low-voltage world only (< 600 V) are now possible at higher voltages... » read more

System-Level Electro-Thermal Analysis of RDS(ON) for Power MOSFET

By Cadence - 11 Mar, 2020 - Comments: 0

Authors: Rajen Murugan1, Nathan Ai2, and C.T. Kao2 1 Texas Instruments, Inc., Dallas, Texas, 75044, USA 2 Cadence Design Systems, Santa Clara, California, USA A coupled-electro-thermal RDS(ON) (drain to source ON resistance) co-analysis methodology for Power MOSFET is proposed. The methodology contains two functional modules: 1) physical field solvers and 2) equivalent circuit/network so... » read more

Electric Cars Gain Traction, But Challenges Remain

By Mark LaPedus - 22 Apr, 2019 - Comments: 4

Battery-powered electric vehicles are expected to reach a milestone in terms of shipments in 2019, but the technology faces several significant hurdles to gain wider adoption in the market. Limited driving range, high costs, battery issues, and a spotty charging infrastructure are the main challenges for battery electric vehicles (BEVs). In addition, there are issues with various power semic... » read more

Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer