Tackling RF Desense Challenges At The Source


Just imagine you are stepping out of the electronics store with your brand new smart phone. You eagerly scroll down your contacts to dial your best friend and proudly tell them the great news, but as soon as they pick up, your reception is gone! What happened? This problem is commonly described as desense, a degradation of the sensitivity of the receiver due to external noise sources. Desens... » read more

Signal Integrity Issues


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss signal integrity with Rob Aitken, research fellow at [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"]; PV Srinivas, senior director of engineering for the Place & Route Division of [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor Graphics"]; and Bernard Murphy, chief technology officer at [getentity id="22026" e_name="Atrenta"]. What follows are excerpts of that conver... » read more

First Look: 10nm


As the semiconductor industry begins grappling with mass production at 14/16nm process nodes, work is already underway at 10nm. Tools are qualified, IP is characterized, and the first test chips are being produced. It's still too early for production, of course—perhaps three years too early—but there is enough information being collected to draw at least some impressions about just how toug... » read more

Signal Integrity Issues


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss signal integrity with Rob Aitken, research fellow at [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"]; PV Srinivas, senior director of engineering for the Place & Route Division of [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor Graphics"]; and Bernard Murphy, chief technology officer at [getentity id="22026" e_name="Atrenta"]. What follows are excerpts of that conver... » read more

Signal Integrity Issues


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss signal integrity with Rob Aitken, research fellow at [getentity id="22186" comment="ARM"]; PV Srinivas, senior director of engineering for the Place & Route Division of [getentity id="22017" e_name="Mentor Graphics"]; and Bernard Murphy, chief technology officer at [getentity id="22026" e_name="Atrenta"]. What follows are excerpts of that conver... » read more

System-Aware SoC Power, Noise And Reliability Sign-off


In globally competitive markets for mobile, consumer and automotive electronic systems, the critical success factors are power consumption, performance and reliability. To manage these conflicting requirements, design teams consider multiple options, including the use of advanced process technology nodes — especially finFET-based devices. These advanced technology nodes allow chips to operate... » read more

Signal And Power Integrity Cross Paths


Signal integrity and power integrity historically have been relatively independent issues, and engineers with expertise in one area generally operate independently of the other. But as more power domains are added to conserve energy and allow more features, as voltages are reduced to save battery life, and as dynamic power becomes more of a concern at advanced nodes, these worlds are suddenly m... » read more

Challenges In IC And Electronic Systems Verification


Power efficiency, unrealistic schedules, and cost-down considerations are increasingly the top challenges design teams must meet to deliver next generation electronic systems, whether it is for the mobile, server, or automotive market. In addition, a successful chip tapeout does not guarantee the eventual end-product’s success—there are many variables to take into account. In the first p... » read more

Managing Electrical Communications Better


By Ann Steffora Mutschler Managing the electrical components of signal paths between IC, package, board and system is no small task, and it’s only growing in complexity. Understanding how to correctly optimize the communications within a system is critical given that the I/O power is becoming a significant portion of the overall chip power as the number of bits and the speed at which t... » read more

Signal Integrity’s Growing Complexity


By Matt Elmore In Part 1, we reviewed the importance of simultaneous switching output (SSO) timing and the challenges associated with double data rate (DDR) simulation complexity. DDR memory interfacing has reached incredible levels of performance (17 Gb/s), requiring precise quantification and reduction of noise. In order to account for each noise contributor, we must model systems end-to-... » read more

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