Blog Review: November 1


Cadence’s Rich Chang finds that although UVM has being used for testbench creation for more than a decade, it is still challenging to debug problems that are inside of UVM testbench. Siemens’ Keith Felton suggests that early analysis in complex advanced packaging flows can enable designers to spot potential issues early to avoid built-in constructs that cause design failures and require ... » read more

What Will That Chip Cost?


In the past, analysts, consultants, and many other experts attempted to estimate the cost of a new chip implemented in the latest process technology. They concluded that by the 3nm node, only a few companies would be able to afford them — and by the time they got into the angstrom range, probably nobody would. Much has changed over the past few process nodes. Increasing numbers of startups... » read more

Anatomy Of A System Simulation


The semiconductor industry has greatly simplified analysis by consolidating around a small number of models and abstractions, but that capability is breaking down both at the implementation level and at the system level. Today, the biggest pressure is coming from the systems industry, where the electronic content is a small fraction of what must be integrated together. Systems companies tend... » read more

Making Connections In 3D Heterogeneous Integration


Activity around 3D heterogeneous integration (3DHI) is heating up, driven by growing support from governments, the need to add more features and compute elements into systems, and a widespread recognition that there are better paths forward than packing everything into a single SoC at the same process node. The leading edge of chip design has changed dramatically over the last few years. Int... » read more

Let’s Do The (IC Design) Time Warp Again


For the most part, we’ve all been doing integrated circuit (IC) and system-on-chip (SoC) layout the same way for decades. Designers put together the design, be it intellectual property (IP), block, or full chip, then begin running physical verification. For design rule checking (DRC), this process consists of running all appropriate rule checks for the component on all available layouts. The ... » read more

Navigating EDA Vendor Cloud Options


Experts at the Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the challenges of cost-dependent cloud decisions, and how to navigate between different EDA vendor clouds options with Philip Steinke, fellow, CAD infrastructure and physical design at AMD; Mahesh Turaga, vice president of business development for cloud at Cadence Design Systems; Richard Ho, vice president hardware engineering ... » read more

Selective Radiation Mitigation For Integrated Circuits


Shortened lifecycles and cost reduction coupled with the demand for advanced capabilities continue to challenge project teams delivering IC into space systems. To meet these demands, project teams must continue to evolve across all aspects of the lifecycle, including the implementation and verification of mitigation protections against single event effects. This paper defines a methodology t... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Susan Rambo, Gregory Haley, and Liz Allan SRC unfurled its Microelectronics and Advanced Packaging (MAPT) industry-wide 3D semiconductor roadmap, addressing such topics as advanced packaging, heterogeneous integration, analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, energy efficiency, security, the related foundational ecosystem, and more. The guidance is the collective effort of 300 individuals ... » read more

Big Changes Ahead For Photomask Technology


The move to curvilinear shapes on photomasks is gaining steam after years of promise as a way of improving yield, lowering defectivity, and reducing wasted space on a die — all of which are essential for both continued scaling and improved reliability in semiconductors. Interest in this approach ran high at this year's SPIE Photomask Technology + EUV Lithography Conference. Put simply, cur... » read more

Wirebonding Is Here To Stay


Few technologies in semiconductor manufacturing have stood the test of time as steadfastly as wirebonding. This process, which involves electrically connecting semiconductor devices to their packages, has been a cornerstone of the electronics industry since the beginning of the electronics industry. Like everything else in the semiconductor market, wirebonding technologies have changed over ... » read more

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