Systematic Yield Issues Now Top Priority At Advanced Nodes


Systematic yield issues are supplanting random defects as the dominant concern in semiconductor manufacturing at the most advanced process nodes, requiring more time, effort, and cost to achieve sufficient yield. Yield is the ultimate hush hush topic in semiconductor manufacturing, but it's also the most critical because it determines how many chips can be profitably sold. "At older nodes, b... » read more

Adopting Predictive Maintenance On Fab Tools


Predictive maintenance, based on more and better sensor data from semiconductor manufacturing equipment, can reduce downtime in the fab and ultimately cut costs compared with regularly scheduled maintenance. But implementing this approach is non-trivial, and it can be disruptive to well-honed processes and flows. Not performing maintenance quickly enough can result in damage to wafers or the... » read more

Testability Analysis Based On Ever-Evolving Technology


The complexity of system-on-chip (SoC) designs continues to grow, so the corresponding design-for-test (DFT) logic required for manufacturing has become more advanced. Design teams are challenged by high gate counts and an array of internally developed and third-party IP integrated into their designs. Understanding if one can create high-quality manufacturing tests for these complex designs mus... » read more

Adding Differentiating Value And Reducing IP Integration Time for Your SoC


In the most efficient SoC design processes, semiconductor companies design their own, differentiated IP blocks, acquire high-quality third-party IP, configure it in an SoC-optimized way, and integrate all blocks into the SoC infrastructure of clocks, voltage supplies, on-chip buffer memories or registers, and test circuits. The SoC design team defines and drives the SoC-specific implementation ... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools and IP Renesas released a family of configurable clock generators with an internal crystal oscillator for PCIe and networking applications in high-end computing, wired infrastructure and data center equipment. “Timing needs can vary greatly between different applications and equipment, and often change during a product design cycle,” said Zaher Baidas, Vice President of the Timing Pr... » read more

Cybersecurity Risks Of Automotive OTA


Modern vehicles increasingly resemble supercomputers on wheels, with many electronic control units (ECUs) networked together as increasingly sophisticated software is installed and updated. Similar to smartphones, vehicle OEMs will contact vehicle owners remotely about operating system updates that add new features and/or fixes, as well as software bugs and vulnerabilities. But all of this h... » read more

Embracing the Challenges Of Cybersecurity In Automotive Applications


The growth of electronics in cars is exposing a new vector for cyberattacks on car owners and automotive companies’ reputations. The potential human cost of an attack on the car’s electronics is driving urgency in the adoption of cybersecurity-aware practices, from OEMs and Tier 1s to every component supplier in the automotive industry. The standard “ISO/SAE 21434:2021 Road vehicles — C... » read more

Why Better Mapping Technology Is Critical To Autonomous Vehicles


Autonomous cars find the way to their destination using a number of critical technologies, including some version of a global position system and a central brain to interpret that and other data. But many of those technologies are not reliable or accurate enough today, and may not be for years to come. There are numerous reports of vehicles missing their stop, or trucks being guided into all... » read more

Software Self-Test As A Safety Mechanism For Processing Units


The growing dependency of modern automobiles on electronic functions increases the need for a variety of integrated circuits (ICs) for safety-critical applications. Requirements coming from different in-car subsystems drives the need for chip manufacturers to create a wide range of specialized solutions. This, in turn, raises the bar for automotive IP suppliers and pushes them to offer configur... » read more

Blog Review: Nov. 30


Cadence's Sangeeta Soni explores how the configuration space for CXL 1.1 and CXL 2.0 varies and discusses newly introduced registers for the CXL-compliant devices and how they are discovered during the CXL enumeration flow. Siemens EDA's Harry Foster continues examining trends in FPGA verification effort by looking at where both design and verification engineers spend their time. Synopsys... » read more

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