The Shape Of Things To Come


By David Lammers Tall or thin? That is the question facing semiconductor companies, now reaching an “intense” phase in development of the vertical finFET and planar ETSOI (extra thin silicon on insulator) transistors for the 22/20nm and 15/14nm technology generations. “This is a conservative industry,” said Raj Jammy, vice president of materials and emerging technologies at Sematech... » read more

New Low-Power Memory Interface Ahead


By Pallab Chatterjee The trend in consumer electronic devices is toward a multimedia-centric data flow, forcing changes in the memory interface needed to handle it. The increased compute resources needed for video signal processing, along with high-definition audio, used to be the exclusive domain of mainstream desktop computers and servers due to their access to memory and high data throug... » read more

One On One With South Korea’s CTO


By Ed Sperling Chang-Gyu Hwang, national chief technology officer for South Korea, sat down with Low-Power Engineering to talk about the future trends in technology, global business and power. Prior to his current role, which was created by the Korean government in April, he ran the semiconductor business at Samsung, where he spent the last 20 years in top management positions. He also is the... » read more

Preparing For 3D IC Stacking


By David Lammers Through-silicon vias (TSVs) are in various stages of late development, but design and manufacturing challenges remain before companies can gain the full benefits of the third dimension. Two camps are pushing hard to introduce TSVs—the design community and the manufacturing equipment companies. The initial goal is to connect graphics memories to graphics processors in mobi... » read more

EUV Focus Shifts To Affordability


By David Lammers Over the past year, key technologists in the semiconductor industry have come around to believing that EUV lithography will be available for critical mask layers in the next three to five years. What is still up for debate is whether EUV will be cost-effective for low-power consumer SoCs. To penetrate that cost-sensitive market, EUV must overcoming hurdles presented by masks, ... » read more

Stressing Over 3D


By David Lammers Pol Marchal recalls putting a stacked 3D prototype on his desk at IMEC in Leuven, Belgium, last year, which a visitor picked up and examined two months later. “I don’t think this chip will work,” the visitor said, causing Marchal, principal scientist at IMEC’s 3D system integration program, to put the stacked die under a microscope. Sure enough, Pol found that mechanic... » read more

Pricey Processes For Low Power


By Pallab Chatterjee Recently Samsung gave an update on the status and availability of its advanced 32/28nm process technology for use in foundry. The process is targeted for shipping designs to customers at the end of this year, with a road map that continues through the 22/20nm nodes and down to 15nm. What was particularly interesting were several key innovations that have made this all p... » read more

Journey To The Center Of The Ecosystem


From the outside it looks like business as usual, but the race for board seats on the GSA has become particularly competitive this year. GSA originally was created as an organization for fabless companies, but you wouldn’t know that looking at its membership roster. It has evolved into a who’s who of the entire semiconductor supply chain, including everyone from foundries like TSMC and... » read more

Low-Power Architectures Go Mainstream


By Pallab Chatterjee Until recently, low power engineering has been defined by the automated use of EDA tools in the design flow to help cut back on peak dynamic power. The new generation of mobile and video products has forced a change in that methodology. There are two other fast rising architectural approaches. The first is multicore, which is prevalent in new product introductions fr... » read more

Battery Progress Inches Forward


By Ed Sperling Chip companies that have been betting the future on better battery technology and holding off on the often painful process of reducing voltage should probably start rethinking their plans. Battery technology is not expected to improve by more than 3% per year, and even that may slow. Compared with the chip side, there are no breakthrough materials such as halfnium or techno... » read more

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