Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 15


Solar sunglasses Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) developed sunglasses with colored, semitransparent organic solar cells applied onto the lenses capable of supplying a microprocessor and two displays with electric power. The solar cell lenses, perfectly fitted to a commercial frame, have a thickness of approx. 1.6 millimeters and weigh about six grams, just like th... » read more

ON Semiconductor Meets AEC Challenges With Electrothermal Analysis


By Justin Yerger, ON Semiconductor, and Ahmed Eisawy, Mentor, a Siemens Business ON Semiconductor is a leading provider of products for automotive applications that follow the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC Q-100-012) requirements for reliability characterization of smart power devices. In particular, Automotive Smart FET driver ICs present verification challenges when verifying short c... » read more

Huawei Delivers Outstandingly Accurate Models


By John Parry, Mentor, a Siemens Business, and Yake Fang, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Packaging high-performance multi-core IC devices used in communication applications is a key challenge for both manufacturers and system integrators. Traditionally a System-in-Package (SiP) has been taken, with chips mounted side-by-side, allowing differing semiconductor technologies to be mixed. More r... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: April 18


Cooling hotspots Engineers at Duke University and Intel developed a technology to cool hotspots in high-performance electronics. The new technology relies on a vapor chamber made of a super-hydrophobic floor with a sponge-like ceiling. When placed beneath operating electronics, moisture trapped in the ceiling vaporizes beneath emerging hotspots. The vapor escapes toward the floor, taking hea... » read more

Tech Talk: Power Signoff


Ansys' Aveek Sarkar the challenges of power signoff at advanced process nodes, the impact of over-design, and what's necessary for sufficient coverage. [youtube vid=VQoT2KYW-AM] » read more

Automotive IC Design Drives Simulation Innovation


By Roberto Stella, STMicroelectronics and Ahmed Eisawy, Mentor Graphics STMicroelectronics invented the Bipolar, CMOS, DMOS (BCD) technology for the intelligent power applications demanded by automotive ICs. This technology is widely-adopted by the automotive IC industry. But, designing automotive ICs is very challenging. It requires innovative techniques to ensure that the ICs can stand u... » read more

Confronting Design Challenges With Smaller Thermal Envelopes


For design engineers, physics giveth but physics can also taketh away. Consider leading-edge smartphones. Outside the improved performance that each generation gives consumers, the handsets themselves get thinner, sleeker, lighter. The reduction in the Z height is effectively a given with each new generation. In 2010, the HTC Nexus One was 11.5mm thick; this year, the Mate 8 is 7.9mm. Rem... » read more

Energy-Efficient Design Helps Autonomous Vehicles Take Off


A new flight endurance record was set recently by the Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper Big Wing experimental drone, traveling 37 hours non-stop, and setting the bar for the next stage of autonomous flight development. The growth of drone technology and their autonomous capabilities for surveillance, security, and reconnaissance has grown rapidly over the past several years, thanks to ever-increasing perf... » read more

Electrical-Mechanical Tool Flow Revisited


For many years, the design tool industry has entertained the idea of combining both electrical and mechanical design into a single user experience, with a single database as a foundation. Major tool vendors, at least on the electrical side, have taken the matter seriously and confirm that activities towards a single flow have been considered, particularly as the [getkc id="7" kc_name="EDA"] ... » read more

TSVs: Copper, Silicon, And CTE Mismatch


As previous articles in this series have discussed, advanced packages introduce new materials and new reliability concerns. Diffusion into solder bumps can create brittle, high resistance, intermetallic compounds. Heat transfer through an interposer can degrade the lifetime of even cool, low power chips. Still, through-silicon vias are unique in that they cut directly through the integrated cir... » read more

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