Variation analysis continues to be increasingly important as process technology moves to more advanced nodes. It comes as no surprise that tool development in this area has been vigorous and aggressive. New higher reliability IC applications, larger memory sizes and much higher production volumes require sophisticated yield… Read More
35 Semiconductor IP Companies Hold 2nd Annual Conference
Our smart phone driven semiconductor economy consumes a lot of IP blocks to enable quick product development cycles, often annually updating with new models to choose from. So where do you find all of the best semiconductor IP, verification IP and embedded software? Well, one place is at the 2nd annual REUSE conference, scheduled… Read More
Using a TCAD Tool to simulate Electrochemistry
In college I took courses in physics, calculus, chemistry and electronics on my way to earn a BSEE degree, then did an 8 year stint as a circuit designer, working at the transistor level and interacting with fab and test engineers. My next adventure was working at EDA companies in a variety of roles. As a circuit designer I knew that … Read More
Webinar on Electrochemistry and how it affects Semiconductor devices
My educational background is Electrical Engineering and I’ve learned a lot since starting in the industry back in 1978 while working on bipolar, NMOS and CMOS technology, designing DRAM, data controller and GPU devices. I continue to learn about the semiconductor industry through daily reading and attending trade shows… Read More
Webinar: Mobile Device Companies Get New Sensor Interconnect Standard
I’ve been a mobile device user since the 1980’s when the Motorola brick phone was introduced, so I’ve seen an increasing amount of sensors added to each new generation of mobile phones over the years. One big challenge to both sensor companies and fabless semiconductor companies designing SoCs for mobile devices… Read More
The Transformation of Silvaco!
Founded in 1984, Silvaco is now the largest privately held EDA company with a rich history including a recent transformation that is worth a blog if not a book. Coincidently, I started my career in Silicon Valley in 1984 and have had many dealings with Silvaco over the years including a personal relationship with Silvaco founder … Read More
DAC 2017: How Oracle does Reliability Simulation when designing SPARC
Last week at #54DAC there was a talk by Michael Yu from the CAD group of Oracle who discussed how they designed their latest generation of SPARC chips, with an emphasis on the reliability simulations. The three features of the latest SPARC family of chips are:
- Security in silicon
- SQL in silicon
- World’s fastest microprocessor
The Official SemiWiki #54DAC Party Guide!
With the premier conference for semiconductor design enablement just around the corner I would like to take this time and space to talk about what is really happening at the #54DAC and that would be the parties! Granted the DAC parties are nothing like we used to have in the 1980s and the 1990s since we have matured as an industry but … Read More
An Approach to TFT and FPD Design
Webinars are a powerful way for engineers to get updated on EDA and IC design approaches, so I’m sharing what I viewed last month at a Silvaco webinar on TFT and FPD design. You probably are using a TFT LCD display in your TV, monitor, mobile phone, video game system, GPS device or projector. The custom IC design flow offered by… Read More
TCAD for TFT, LCD and OLED Displays
As I write there are multiple displays in front of me that use TFT, LCD or OLED displays:
- ViewSonic Monitors with 24″ display
- MacBook Pro with 15″ display
- iPad Air
- Samsung Galaxy Note 4
- Nexus 7 tablet
- Garmin Edge 820