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Achieving Design Robustness in Signoff for Advanced Node Digital Designs

Achieving Design Robustness in Signoff for Advanced Node Digital Designs
by Mike Gianfagna on 03-09-2020 at 10:00 am

Synopsys SemiWiki STARRC Webinar 1

I had the opportunity to preview an upcoming webinar on SemiWiki that deals with design robustness for signoff regarding advanced node digital designs (think single-digit nanometers). “Design robustness” is a key term – it refers to high quality, high yielding SoCs that come up quickly and reliably in the target system. We all… Read More


Six Automated Steps to Design Partitioning for Multi-FPGA Prototyping Boards

Six Automated Steps to Design Partitioning for Multi-FPGA Prototyping Boards
by Daniel Nenni on 03-09-2020 at 6:00 am

Aldec Webinar SemiWiki

Before starting your next FPGA Prototyping Project you should catch the next SemiWiki webinar – “Six Automated Steps to Design Partitioning for Multi-FPGA Prototyping Boards”, in partnership with Aldec.

A significant portion of my  30+ years in the EDA industry has revolved around design verification with some form of FPGA … Read More


Technology Tyranny and the End of Radio

Technology Tyranny and the End of Radio
by Roger C. Lanctot on 03-07-2020 at 10:00 am

Technology Tyranny and the End of Radio

As technology consumers we make tradeoffs.

We let Google peer into our online activity and email communications and we even accept annoying advertisements tied to our browsing activity in order to access free email and browing. We tolerate smartphones with diminishing performance from Apple – even after Apple admits that the

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A Forbidden Pitch Combination at Advanced Lithography Nodes

A Forbidden Pitch Combination at Advanced Lithography Nodes
by Fred Chen on 03-06-2020 at 10:00 am

A Forbidden Pitch Combination at Advanced Lithography Nodes

The current leading edge of advanced lithography nodes (e.g., “7nm” or “1Z nm”) features pitches (center-center distances between lines) in the range of 30-40 nm. Whether EUV (13.5 nm wavelength) or ArF (193 nm wavelength) lithography is used, one thing for certain is that the minimum imaged pitch … Read More


TSMC’s 5nm 0.021um2 SRAM Cell Using EUV and High Mobility Channel with Write Assist at ISSCC2020

TSMC’s 5nm 0.021um2 SRAM Cell Using EUV and High Mobility Channel with Write Assist at ISSCC2020
by Don Draper on 03-06-2020 at 6:00 am

Fig. 1 Semiconductor Technology Application Evolution

Technological leadership has long been key to TSMC’s success and they are following up their leadership development of 5nm with the world’s smallest SRAM cell at 0.021um 2 with circuit design details of their write assist techniques necessary to achieve the full potential of this revolutionary technology. In addition to their… Read More


The Story of Ultra-WideBand – Part 2: The Second Fall

The Story of Ultra-WideBand – Part 2: The Second Fall
by Frederic Nabki & Dominic Deslandes on 03-05-2020 at 10:00 am

The Story of Ultrawideband SemiWiki 1

Over-engineered to perfection, outmaneuvered by Wi-Fi
In Part 1 of this series, we recounted the birth of wideband radio at the turn of the 20th century, and how superheterodyne radio killed wideband radios for messaging after 1920. But RADAR kept wideband research alive through World War 2 and the Cold War. Indeed, the story of… Read More


COVID-19 Collateral Chip Collision – Will Fabs & Foundries Flounder?

COVID-19 Collateral Chip Collision – Will Fabs & Foundries Flounder?
by Robert Maire on 03-05-2020 at 6:00 am

Corvid 19 SemiWiki

Corona Fab Impact –
lower production/raise prices
Chip production supply chain may break
It could temporarily fix memory oversupply
Could it risk the fall roll out of next Iphone

The ” Two week tango” – Waiting games at fabs
When a highly specialized piece of semiconductor equipment misbehaves to the… Read More


Designing Next Generation Memory Interfaces: Modeling, Analysis, and Tips

Designing Next Generation Memory Interfaces: Modeling, Analysis, and Tips
by Mike Gianfagna on 03-04-2020 at 10:00 am

IBIS AMI vs. Transient

At DesignCon 2020, there was a presentation by Micron, Socionext and Cadence that discussed design challenges and strategies for using the new low-power DDR specification (LPDDR5). As is the case with many presentations at DesignCon, ecosystem collaboration was emphasized. Justin Butterfield (senior engineer at Micron)… Read More


LithoVision – Economics in the 3D Era

LithoVision – Economics in the 3D Era
by Scotten Jones on 03-04-2020 at 6:00 am

Slide3

Each year on the Sunday before the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference, Nikon holds their LithoVision event. This year I had the privilege of being invited to speak for the third consecutive year, unfortunately, the event had to be canceled due to concerns over the COVID-19 virus but by the time the event was canceled I had already… Read More


The Story of Ultra-WideBand – Part 1: The Genesis

The Story of Ultra-WideBand – Part 1: The Genesis
by Frederic Nabki & Dominic Deslandes on 03-03-2020 at 10:00 am

The Story of Ultra WideBand Part 1 SemiWiki

In the middle of the night of April 14, 1912, the R.M.S. Titanic sent a distress message. It had just hit an iceberg and was sinking. Even though broadcasting an emergency wireless signal is common today, this was cutting edge technology at the turn of the 20th century. This was made possible by the invention of a broadband radio developed… Read More