Aging, Complexity, And AI In Analog Design


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss abstraction in analog vs. digital, how analog circuits age, the growing role of AI, and why there is so much margin in analog designs, with Mo Faisal, president and CEO of Movellus; Hany Elhak, executive director of product management at Synopsys; Cedric Pujol, product manager at Keysight; and Pradeep Thiagarajan, principal pro... » read more

Advanced Packaging Driving New Collaboration Across Supply Chain


The semiconductor industry is undergoing a profound shift in packaging technologies to ones that rely on close collaboration among multiple stakeholders to solve intricate, multi-faceted, and extraordinarily complex problems. At the heart of this change is the convergence of heterogeneous integration, chiplets, and 3D stacking. Heterogeneous approaches allow companies to combine different te... » read more

Boost High-Performance IC Design Flows With Early Interactive Symmetry Checking


In the realm of high-performance IC (integrated circuit) design, symmetry is not just an aesthetic preference—it’s a critical factor for ensuring proper device functionality, especially in analog and RF designs. Achieving symmetry early in the design process helps to ensure consistent electrical behavior, which is essential for meeting performance goals and maintaining device reliability. H... » read more

Method To Determine The Permittivity of Dielectric Materials in 3D Integrated Structures At Broadband RF Frequencies


A new technical paper titled "Characterizing the Broadband RF Permittivity of 3D-Integrated Layers in a Glass Wafer Stack from 100 MHz to 30 GHz" was published by researchers at NIST. Abstract "We present a method for accurately determining the permittivity of dielectric materials in 3D integrated structures at broadband RF frequencies. With applications of microwave and millimeter-wave ele... » read more

Accelerate Your Digital Transformation with ADS Python Automation


Three automation use cases for expanded Keysight ADS Python APIs transforming modern RF and high-speed design include: Use Case 1 – Python for Personal Productivity: One advantage of Python is its easy accessibility to entry-level programmers.  Python is an interpreted language that is free and widely supported on Windows and Linux, is expandable to many domains with plug-ins, and allows... » read more

Managing EMI in High-Density Integration


The relentless drive for higher performance and increased functional integration has ushered in new challenges for managing electromagnetic interference (EMI) in densely packed mixed-signal environments. Integrating analog, RF, and digital circuits into a single system-on-chip (SoC) or advanced package requires solutions that reduce system size and improve performance. However, this tight in... » read more

The Semiconductor Revolution And The Role Of Adaptable Testing


The semiconductor industry, the backbone of modern technology, is experiencing a rapid evolution driven by the increasing demands for higher performance, greater functionality, and lower power consumption. This evolution is creating new challenges and opportunities in the testing of mixed signal and RF semiconductors and electronics devices, making the need for adaptable and flexible test syste... » read more

Integration Hurdles For Analog And RF In Next-Gen Packages


A rapid increase in wireless connectivity and more sensors, coupled with a shift away from monolithic SoCs toward heterogeneous integration, is driving up the amount of analog/RF content in systems and changing the dynamics within a package. Since the early 2000s, the majority of chips used at the most advanced nodes were systems-on-chip (SoCs). All features had to fit into a single planar S... » read more

Research Bits: May 21


Lithium tantalate PICs Researchers at EPFL and Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology developed scalable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based on lithium tantalate (LiTaO3). Lithium tantalate can provide excellent electro-optic qualities and is used in telecom 5G RF filters. The team developed a wafer-bonding method for lithium tantalate, which is compatible with s... » read more

Optimize Power For RF/μW Hybrid And Digital Phased Arrays


Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are a critical component of both digital and hybrid phased array technology. Powering FPGAs for aerospace and defense applications comes with its own set of challenges, especially because these applications require higher reliability than many industrial or consumer technologies. This blog post will provide a brief history on beamforming and beam-steeri... » read more

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