Assembly Design Rules Slowly Emerge


Process design kits (PDKs) play an essential in ensuring that silicon technology can proceed from one generation to the next in a manner that design tools can keep up with. No such infrastructure has been needed for packaging in the past, but that's beginning to change with advanced packages. Heterogeneous assemblies are still ramping up, but their benefits are attracting new designs. “Chi... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


The new Trump administration was quick to put a different stamp on the tech world: President Trump rescinded a long list of Biden’s executive orders, including those aimed at AI safety and the mandate for 50% EVs by 2030. Roughly 1.3 million EVs were sold in the U.S. in 2024, up 7.3% from 2023. The new administration announced $500 billion ($100 billion initially) in private sector in... » read more

More Than Meets The Eye: Trends In Lithography


Lithography, once the exclusive domain of artists and printmakers, also lies at the heart of integrated circuit (IC) production. The process of shining light on a substrate through a photomask to control exposure has been around since the 1960s and has been the key part of improving IC fabrication process resolution. At the time, the light sources used were in the human-visible spectrum, which ... » read more

Electrifying Everything: Power Moves Toward ICs


As electronic systems grow increasingly complex and energy-intensive, traditional power management methods — centered on centralized systems and external components — are proving inadequate. The next wave of innovation is to bring power control closer to the action — directly on the chip or into a heterogeneous package. This change is driven by a relentless pursuit of efficiency, scala... » read more

Automotive OEMs Face Multiple Technology Adoption Challenges


Experts At The Table: The automotive ecosystem is in the midst of significant change. OEMs and tiered providers are grappling with how to deal with legacy technology while incorporating ever-increasing levels of autonomy, electrification, and software-defined vehicle concepts, just to name a few. Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss these and other related issues with Wayne Lyons, seni... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 22


Cadence's David Shin provides an overview of the eUSB2V2 specification, which scales up to 4.8Gbps of data rate and provides the flexibility to configure either asymmetrical or symmetrical links depending on the intended application. Siemens EDA's Spencer Acain highlights the key role of AI in semiconductor testing, including the addition of analytical AI in DFT tools and how applying machin... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


GlobalFoundries will create a new center for advanced packaging and testing of U.S.-made essential chips within its New York manufacturing facility. A flurry of announcements on advanced semiconductors and AI rolled out this week as U.S. President Biden wrapped up his term: The Biden-Harris Administration released an Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion to strengthen ... » read more

How Ultra Ethernet And UALink Enable High-Performance, Scalable AI Networks


By Ron Lowman and Jon Ames AI workloads are significantly driving innovation in the interface IP market. The exponential increase in AI model parameters, doubling approximately every 4-6 months, stands in stark contrast to the slower pace of hardware advancements dictated by Moore's Law, which follows an 18-month cycle. This discrepancy demands hardware innovations to support AI workloads, c... » read more

Power Budgets Optimized By Managing Glitch Power


“Waste not, want not,” says the old adage, and in general, that’s good advice to live by. But in the realm of chip design, wasting power is a fact of physics. Glitch power – power that gets expended due to delays in gates and/or wires – can account for up to 40% of the power budget in advanced applications like data center servers. Even in less high-powered circuits, such as those fou... » read more

2025: So Many Possibilities


The stage is set for a year of innovation in the chip industry, unlike anything seen for decades, but what makes this period of advancement truly unique is the need to focus on physics and real design skills. Planar scaling of SoCs enabled design and verification tools and methodologies to mature on a relatively linear path, but the last few years have created an environment for more radical... » read more

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