TSMC’s A16 technology, presented as Paper T1.5 at the June 2026 IEEE/JSAP VLSI Symposium, marks the company’s first angstrom-class CMOS platform combining enhanced nanosheet gate-all-around transistors with backside power delivery. The key integration feature is Super Power Rail, or SPR, which TSMC describes as a backside… Read More
The Packaging PDK Is the Missing Layer for Co-Packaged Optics
From Photonic Device Design to Electro-Optical Realization
Co-packaged optics will not scale through photonic device performance alone.
As AI infrastructure pushes bandwidth, power, latency, and reach to new limits, optics is moving closer to the compute engine. The industry is no longer asking only whether a photonic device… Read More
All-Embracing Multiphysics Analysis for Chiplet-Based Systems
What systems can accomplish by combining semiconductors, AI, and software seems at times boundless. Chiplet-based semiconductors deliver this promise, allowing a myriad of complex digital, memory, analog and photonic functions to be condensed into a single semiconductor package for higher performance, lower power consumption… Read More
AI-native Virtual Chiplet Eco-systems: Shift Left, Shift Up, and Shift Out to accelerate Chiplet adoption
Systems-in-package (SIPs) with 2.5D and 3D heterogenous integration, consisting of multiple dies and chiplets deliver 10x more functionality than traditional monolithic chips. This capability enables innovative solutions for diverse needs in scientific computing, automotive, edge computing, and aerospace/defense.… Read More
Synopsys Unifies Electrical, Thermal, Mechanical, and Optical Analysis with Multiphysics Fusion Solutions
Synopsys has announced the availability of the first wave of its Multiphysics Fusion Solutions, extending its vision of a unified engineering environment that connects EDA, semiconductor physics, system simulation, and artificial intelligence-driven optimization. The announcement addresses one of the most significant… Read More
A tower-like heterogeneous packaging architecture for the AI era
For years, advanced packaging has been described mostly in planar terms: chiplets placed side by side, connected through interposers, bridges, redistribution layers, substrates, and short-reach electrical links. This view remains important. It supports today’s GPU, HBM, chiplet, and 2.5D integration architectures.… Read More
From Evidence to Authority: Bounded Gate Authority for Governed Semiconductor Realization
Advanced semiconductor systems are no longer limited by a single engineering domain. They are constrained by the convergence of many interdependent vectors: silicon nodes, advanced packaging architectures, substrate materials, platform PCBs, power-delivery networks, thermal behavior, manufacturing variation, firmware… Read More
Intel: Pushing EMIB Forward: Design Methodology Insights with Synopsys Tools
As advanced packaging becomes a critical enabler for next-generation semiconductor products, Intel continues to drive innovation through its Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) technology. EMIB has emerged as a foundational packaging solution for heterogeneous integration, allowing multiple chiplets and… Read More
Convergence Evidence Maturity Hierarchy: From Raw Data to Convergence-Authoritative Evidence
The semiconductor industry is generating more engineering data than ever before.
This article follows the previously published GFL and TCG foundation pieces. GFL introduced the lifecycle-governance problem. TCG clarified why observable or interoperable data is not automatically trustworthy convergence evidence. CEMH… Read More
A Look at the High-Profile Speakers Presenting at #DAC2026
Many of us think of DAC as an important trade show for the Semiconductors and EDA industries. That is certainly part of the history of DAC, but the event is also a highly prestigious technical conference dating back to 1964. In fact, the exhibits at DAC began 20 years after the conference started. That long history as a premier technical… Read More


The Packaging PDK Is the Missing Layer for Co-Packaged Optics