More than two years ago, Synopsys launched its AI-driven design space optimization (DSO.ai) capability. It is part of the company’s Synopsys.ai EDA suite, an outcome of its overarching AI initiative. Since then, DSO.ai has boosted designer productivity and has been leveraged for 270 production tape-outs. DSO.ai uses machine… Read More



Stochastic Model for Acid Diffusion in DUV Chemically Amplified Resists
Recent articles have focused much effort on studying the stochastic behavior of secondary electron exposure of EUV resists [1-4]. Here, we consider the implications of extending similar treatments to DUV lithography.
Basic Model Setup
As before, the model uses pixel-by-pixel calculations of absorbed photon dose, followed… Read More
The TSMC Pivot that Changed the Semiconductor Industry!
During my research I found an interview with Don Brooks from February 2000. It was very interesting and confirmed some of the things I knew about Don and brought up a few things I did not know. It’s an hour but it is a video of Don telling his story and is definitely worth a look. One of the things that was not mentioned however is the… Read More
Podcast EP181: A Tour of yieldHUB’s Operation and Impact with Carl Moore
Dan is joined by Carl Moore, a semiconductor and yield management expert with a career spanning 40 years. Carl’s held technical management positions across product and test engineering, assembly, manufacturing, and design at established semiconductor companies. Carl is passionate about data analytics and has a reputation… Read More
SMIC N+2 in Huawei Mate Pro 60
Up until last December I was president and owner of IC Knowledge LLC, at the end of November, I sold IC Knowledge LLC to TechInsights. It has been interesting to become an insider at the world’s leading semiconductor reverse engineering and knowledge company. The latest SMIC N+2 analysis is an excellent example of TechInsight’s… Read More
Podcast EP180: A New Silicon Catalyst Incubator Program in the UK with Sean Redmond
Dan is joined by Sean Redmond, managing partner for Silicon Catalyst. Sean has nearly 40 years of experience in the semiconductor and software industries including stints at VLSI technology, Verisity Design, Cadence, ARC, and others. Sean has recently worked closely with the UK government on industrial digital strategy, co-chairing… Read More
ViShare’s Rapid Market Entry with FPGA-Based Prototyping Solution from S2C
ViShare Technology, a fabless semiconductor company focusing on video codec, developed a chip for 8K60 video streaming with the help of S2C FPGA-based prototyping solution. This solution enables ViShare to accelerate its verification process and time-to-market by 6 months.
Since its establishment in 2012, ViShare has been… Read More
Mixed Signal Verification is Growing in Importance
I have historically avoided mixed signal topics, assuming they decouple from digital and can be left to the experts. That simple view no longer holds water. Analog and digital are becoming more closely linked through control loops and datapaths, requiring a careful balancing act in verification between performance, accuracy… Read More
Advancing Semiconductor Processes with Novel Extreme UV Photoresist Materials
Introduction
The ever-growing demand for faster, smaller, and more efficient electronic devices has fueled the semiconductor industry’s relentless pursuit of innovation. One crucial technology at the heart of semiconductor manufacturing is Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) to achieve smaller feature sizes… Read More
Rad Hard Circuit Design and Optimization for Space Applications
The Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology (MCTIC) has a research unit, Renato Archer Information Technology Center (CTI), and two of their IC engineers presented at the MunEDA User Group meeting this May on the topic of designing Latching Current Limiter (LCL) circuits for space applications with RHBD (radiation-hardened… Read More
Intel’s Pearl Harbor Moment