Heatsinks Here, There, Everywhere!

By Mentor, a Siemens Business - 24 Jan, 2018 - Comments: 0

Heatsinks are often perceived to be the magic answer to all electronics cooling challenges. A heatsink makes heat spread out, so that it passes to the air over a much larger surface area than it would otherwise. Air then carries the heat away, cooling the electronics that generated it. So, why not place a heatsink on top of any thermally critical component? To read more, click here. » read more

Advanced Packaging Is Suddenly Very Cool

By Ed Sperling - 11 Dec, 2017 - Comments: 2

The hottest chip markets today—automotive AI for autonomous and heavily assisted driving, machine learning, virtual and augmented reality—all are beginning to look at advanced packaging as the best path forward for improving performance and reducing power. Over the past four years, which is when 2.5D and fan-out wafer-level packaging first really began garnering interest, these and othe... » read more

Intelligent Power Allocation

By Arm - 11 Oct, 2017 - Comments: 0

The modern System-on-Chip (SoC) has higher thermal dissipation than its previous generations, because of the following factors: Increasing processor frequencies. Decreasing SoC package and device sizes. Higher levels of integration. Static power consumption trends with the most advanced SoC fabrication. Faster frequencies mean faster switching, which means more power consumpt... » read more

Controlling Heat

By Ann Mutschler - 12 Sep, 2016 - Comments: 0

Modeling on-chip thermal characteristics and chip-package interactions is becoming much more critical for advanced designs, but how to get there isn't always clear. Every chip, based on its target application, has a thermal design power (TDP) target. This is the typical power it can consume without overreaching the acceptable thermal limits in its intended environment. But in order to rate t... » read more

Thermal Issues Getting Worse

By Ann Mutschler - 14 Aug, 2015 - Comments: 2

Making sure that smartphone you’re holding doesn’t burn your face when you make a call requires a tremendous amount of engineering effort at all levels of the design - the case, the chips, the packaging. The developers of the IP subsystems in that smartphone must adhere to very strict power and energy thresholds so the OEM putting it all together can stick to some semblance of a product des... » read more

Too Hot To Handle

By Ed Sperling - 14 Feb, 2013 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler It used to be that a device could be designed to a thermal design power. The worst case power scenario would be imagined, and the device would be designed with that in mind. But those good old days are gone. Especially for consumer devices, how a device is going to behave with respect to time, or how people are going to use it, must be understood as completely a... » read more

Thermal On My Mind

By Ann Mutschler - 14 Feb, 2013 - Comments: 0

Oh heat, how I miss thee… in the dead of winter of course. And while heat is a good thing for my garden, it’s not so great when it comes to my, your and everyone’s electronic devices. I’ve been reflecting a lot on this topic since researching thermal management for my article, “Too Hot To Handle.” You see, I have a favorite laptop. It’s a MacBook Pro with a nice, large screen a... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
Entities, people and technologies explored

Shift Left Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

A transformative change is underway for semiconductor design and EDA. New languages, models, and abstractions will need to be created.

by Brian Bailey

Partitioning In The Chiplet Era

Understanding how chiplets interact under different workloads is critical to ensuring signal integrity and optimal performance in heterogeneous designs.

by Ann Mutschler

3.5D: The Great Compromise

Pros and cons of a middle-ground chiplet assembly that combines 2.5D and 3D-IC.

by Ed Sperling

AI’s Role In Chip Design Widens, Drawing In New Startups

Focus is on letting engineers do much more with the same or fewer resources — and less drudgery.

by Karen Heyman

Key Technologies To Extend EUV To 14 Angstroms

Alongside high-NA EUV will be better-performing photoresists, reduced roughness using passivation and etch, and lateral etching to reduce tip-to-tip dimensions.

by Laura Peters

Memory Fundamentals For Engineers

eBook: Nearly everything you need to know about memory, including detailed explanations of the different types of memory; how and where these are used today; what's changing, which memories are successful and which ones might be in the future; and the limitations of each memory type.

by The SE Staff

What Comes After HBM For Chiplets

The standard for high-bandwidth memory limits design freedom at many levels, but that is required for interoperability. What freedoms can be taken from other functions to make chiplets possible?

by Brian Bailey

Why Small Fab And Assembly Houses Are Thriving

Megafabs churning out the most advanced processors are not the only game in town.

by Bryon Moyer