Given the recent acquisitions the ASIC business is coming full circle as a critical part of the fabless semiconductor ecosystem. The most recent one being the SEMIFIVE acquisition of IP industry stalworth Analog Bits. These two companies came to the industry from opposite directions which make them a perfect match, absolutely.… Read More





Auto Safety – A Dickensian Tale
As I prepare to join the International Telecommunications Union’s Future Networked Car Symposium – today through Friday – I am reminded of Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” and its unforgettable opening paragraph – modified for a modern context here:
It was the best of times,… Read More
Etch Pitch Doubling Requirement for Cut-Friendly Track Metal Layouts: Escaping Lithography Wavelength Dependence
The 5nm foundry node saw the arrival of 6-track standard cells with four narrow routing tracks between wide power/ground rails (Figure 1a), with minimum pitches of around 30 nm [1]. The routing tracks require cuts [2] with widths comparable to the minimum half-pitch, to enable the via connections to the next metal layer with the… Read More
Podcast EP68: The Foundation of Computational Electromagnetics
Dan is joined by Dr. Matthew Commens, product manager Ansys. Matt discusses an upcoming webinar series on the inner workings and capabilities of Ansys simulation software. How the series began, the impact and benefits and a view of the future are all covered.
Webinar Series: Learn the Foundation of Computational Electromagnetics… Read More
WEBINAR: Overcome Aging Issues in Clocks at Sub-10nm Designs
We all know that designers work hard to reach design closure on SOC designs. However, what gets less attention from consumers is the effort that goes into ensuring that these chips will be fully operational and meeting timing specs over their projected lifetime. Of course, this is less important for chips used in devices with projected… Read More
Electronics, COVID-19, and Ukraine
The outlook for electronics and semiconductors in 2022 is uncertain. Just as the world was returning to more normal conditions after (hopefully) the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is over, Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a March 15 blog post asserted the Russian invasion of Ukraine… Read More
Analog Design Acceleration for Chiplet Interface IP
Compared to the automation of digital design, the development of automation for analog has taken a much more arduous path. Over the decades there have been many projects both academic and commercial to accelerate and improve the process for analog design. One of the most interesting efforts in this area is being spearheaded by … Read More
Experimenting for Better Floorplans
There is sometimes an irony in switching to a better solution in design construction or analysis. The new approach is so much better that you want to experiment to further optimize the design. Which then exposes another barrier to enjoying that newfound freedom. SoC design teams often find this when switching from crossbar interconnect… Read More
The EUV Divide and Intel Foundry Services
The EUV Divide
I was recently updating an analysis I did last year that looked at EUV system supply and demand, while doing this I started thinking about Intel and their Fab portfolio.
If you look at Intel’s history as a microprocessor manufacturer, they are typically ramping up their newest process node (n), in volume production… Read More
Webinar: Simulate Trimming for Circuit Quality of Smart IC Design
Advanced semiconductor nanometer technology nodes, together with smart IC design applications enable today very complex and powerful systems for communication, automotive, data transmission, AI, IoT, medical, industry, energy harvesting, and many more.
However, more aggressive time-to-market and higher performance… Read More
MediaTek Develops Chip Utilizing TSMC’s 2nm Process, Achieving Milestones in Performance and Power Efficiency