Chip Industry Week in Review


San Francisco-based Substrate raised more than $100 million to build a vertically integrated foundry that uses particle accelerators to produce "the world's brightest beams, enabling a new method of advanced X-ray lithography." The company claims its technology is comparable to ASML's high NA EUV, and notes it can extend well beyond 2nm. ASML has not publicly commented. The Nexperia chip sho... » read more

Research Bits: Oct. 28


Mushroom memristors Researchers from The Ohio State University found that common edible mushrooms can be grown and trained to act as organic memristors. The team cultured samples of shiitake and button mushrooms, dehydrated them once mature to ensure long-term viability, connected them to special electronic circuits, and then electrocuted them at various voltages and frequencies. “Myce... » read more

Chip Industry Technical Paper Roundup: Oct. 21


New technical papers recently added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library: [table id=484 /] Find more semiconductor research papers here. » read more

Statistical Model Checking As An Evaluation Tool of Microarchitectural Side Channels (Duke, Harvard, Univ. of Florida)


A new technical paper titled "Rigorous Evaluation of Microarchitectural Side-Channels with Statistical Model Checking" was published by researchers at Duke University, Harvard University and University of Florida. Abstract "Rigorous quantitative evaluation of microarchitectural side channels is challenging for two reasons. First, the processors, attacks, and defenses often exhibit probabili... » read more

Location Verification Becomes Much Bigger Concern For Chips


Location verification is gaining traction as a way of strengthening supply chain oversight with minimal effort, fueled by tightening export controls and growing concerns about AI chip smuggling and counterfeiting. In the past, this kind of tracking was done by having one or more employees literally watch over a production run at a fab, follow the chips all the way to their destination, and a... » read more

Security Technical Paper Roundup: Sept. 30


A number of hardware security-related technical papers were presented at the August 2025 USENIX Security Symposium. The organization provides open access research, and the presentation slides and papers are free to the public. Topics include side-channel attacks and defenses, embedded security, fuzzing, fault injection, rowhammer, and more. Here are some highlights with associated links: [ta... » read more

Chip Industry Week in Review


The U.S. is considering annual approvals for Samsung and SK hynix to export chipmaking tools and materials to their factories in China, replacing perpetual waivers granted under the validated end user system, reports Bloomberg. The proposal, presented by the U.S. Commerce Department to South Korean officials, would require the companies to reapply each year for specific quantities of restricted... » read more

Chip Industry Week in Review


Cadence plans to buy Hexagon AB's design and engineering business to accelerate expansion in physical AI and system design and analysis. Cadence will pay ~US$3.1 billion in cash and issue stock, with the deal expected to close in early 2026. PWC issued a 104-page in-depth analysis of semiconductor technology and markets, highlighting a broad swath of changes: $1T in annual revenue by 2030, ... » read more

Chip Industry Week in Review


Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA warned about power swings and physical damage to power grids increasing from AI training workloads and jointly proposed a multi-pronged approach to stabilize power in AI training data centers. Meanwhile, Anthropic issued a warning about the weaponization of agentic AI in a new 25-page Threat Intelligence report. Key concerns involve the evolution in AI-assisted ... » read more

Physical Access Control Raises New Security Concerns


Experts At The Table: Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss hardware security challenges, including fundamental security of GenAI, with Nicole Fern, principal security analyst at Keysight; Serge Leef, AI-For-Silicon strategist at Microsoft; Scott Best, senior director for silicon security products at Rambus; Lee Harrison, director of Tessent Automotive IC Solutions at Siemens EDA; Mohit... » read more

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