Cobalt Shortages Ahead


Rapid growth of electric vehicles is creating an enormous demand for cobalt, causing tight supply, high prices and supply chain issues for this critical material. Cobalt is a ferromagnetic metal and one of the key materials used in lithium-ion batteries for cell phones, notebook PCs, battery-electric cars and hybrids. It also is used in alloys and semiconductors. And while the IC industry co... » read more

Market And Tech Inflections Ahead


Aart de Geus, chairman and co-CEO of Synopsys, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the path to autonomous vehicles, industry dis-aggregation and re-aggregation, security issues, and who's going to pay for chips at advanced nodes. SE: All of a sudden we have a bunch of new markets opening up for electronics. We have assisted and autonomous driving, AI and machine learning, v... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers and OEMs Tesla Motors has been struggling to get its new electric car, the Model 3, out the door. And it recently implemented a layoff amid ongoing losses. But the struggling car maker could be in the midst of a rebound. “Based on our checks, we believe the perceived quality of Model 3s coming off the lines continue to improve relative to prior checks, and we view this as one of t... » read more

Progress And Chaos On Road To Autonomy


Progress in the development of fully autonomous vehicles is incremental and slow, but not for lack of effort. Research and development in self-driving cars is under way all around the globe, from the biggest automotive manufacturers and their Tier 1 suppliers to companies not traditionally involved in the automotive industry. Add to that fleets of startups working on sensor technologies and ... » read more

The Coming Golden Age For Automotive E/E Design Services And Consulting


By Andrew Macleod and Scott Majdecki The discipline of automotive E/E systems design is being transformed by trends like electrification and autonomous vehicles, which means there is a premium on methodologies like rapid platform (hardware/ software) prototyping, simulation and test, and electrical architecture optimization. Such methodologies hinge on advanced software design tools and the ... » read more

Committing To Automotive


The autonomous driving effort has hit some painful speedbumps lately, with Tesla and Uber feeling the brunt of these. Unfortunately, the recent fatal accidents demonstrate just how challenging it is to get this technology right, and why some in this space have downshifted their efforts to learn from what happened and how to prevent it going forward. This prompted Nvidia to suspend its effort... » read more

Autonomous Cars Have Far-Reaching Impacts


Within the semiconductor ecosystem, autonomous vehicle technology is already having a gigantic impact as far as chip and tool development, education about what this all means, new relationships and partnerships -- among other things that hit closer to home such as how autonomous vehicles will impact our professional and personal lives. Sundari Mitra, CEO of NetSpeed Systems has been closely ... » read more

5 Takeaways From ISS 2018


At the recent Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) in Half Moon Bay, Calif., there were a multitude of presentations on a number of subjects. The event, sponsored by SEMI, had presentations on the outlook for ICs and equipment. As part of the program, ISS also discussed the latest business and technology trends. In no particular order, here are my five takeaways from ISS: Ranging forecasts ... » read more

New Thermal Issues Emerge


Thermal monitoring is becoming more critical as gate density continues to increase at each new node and as chips are developed for safety critical markets such as automotive. This may sound counterintuitive because the whole point of device scaling is to increase gate density. But at 10/7 and 7/5nm, static current leakage is becoming a bigger issue, raising questions about how long [getkc id... » read more

The Road To Autonomy


Visions of autonomous driving were everywhere at CES 2018 in Las Vegas and the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Still, while there is progress in the technology, it will be years before the average motorist can get a fully autonomous vehicle. Advanced driver-assistance systems are gaining in complexity and scope, representing steps toward automated driving. At CES 2018, ... » read more

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