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Webinar – Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry 2019 Update!

Webinar – Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry 2019 Update!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-10-2019 at 6:00 am

As more than 343 people (and counting) know, we will be releasing the 2019 updated PDF version of our first book “Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry” via handout at a live webinar. The response has been overwhelming and I want to personally thank you. The webinar will be a brief overview of the book with a question… Read More


300mm Fab Watch 2019!

300mm Fab Watch 2019!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-09-2019 at 10:00 am

Unless you are new to SemiWiki you should be familiar with Scotten Jones, founder of IC Knowledge, semiconductor process expert, and blogger extraordinaire. Scott joined SemiWiki in 2014 and has been blogging ever since with 130 posted thus far.

Scott’s, company, IC Knowledge LLC, is the world leader in cost modeling of… Read More


Chapter 5 – Consolidation of the Semiconductor Industry

Chapter 5 – Consolidation of the Semiconductor Industry
by Wally Rhines on 08-09-2019 at 6:00 am

For the last decade, semiconductor industry analysts have been writing articles and giving presentations that predict the increasing consolidation of the industry to the point where a few large companies dominate worldwide sales of semiconductor components.  In recent years there has been some justification for this view… Read More


WEBINAR: The Brave New World of Customized Memory

WEBINAR: The Brave New World of Customized Memory
by Randy Smith on 08-08-2019 at 10:00 am

The need to design low power devices is not new. However, the criticality of lowering the power consumption of chip designs has never been as important as it is now. In 1989, I purchased one of the first consumer cell phones produced by Panasonic. The battery was the size of a brick, but only about a third of the thickness. If the battery… Read More


Tortuga Webinar: Ensuring System Level Security Through HW/SW Verification

Tortuga Webinar: Ensuring System Level Security Through HW/SW Verification
by Bernard Murphy on 08-08-2019 at 6:00 am

Jason Oberg

We all know (I hope) that security is important so we’re willing to invest time and money in this area but there are a couple of problems. First there’s no point in making your design secure if it’s not competitive and making it competitive is hard enough, so the great majority of resource and investment is going to go into that objective.… Read More


5G Auction without Action​ = Fraud

5G Auction without Action​ = Fraud
by Roger C. Lanctot on 08-07-2019 at 10:00 am

“We don’t need 10 Mbit/s, but rather basic bandwidth and guaranteed latency. We need coverage!” thus spoke BMW Senior Vice President of Electronics Christoph Grote at the recent Automobil-Elektronik Kongress in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Grote was making this plea in the context of the onset of 5G technology.… Read More


Insurers Not Ready to Discount Premiums on ADAS

Insurers Not Ready to Discount Premiums on ADAS
by Bernard Murphy on 08-07-2019 at 6:00 am

Think because your new car is loaded with ADAS your insurance company should give you a break on premiums? Think again. The purpose of all those fancy features is to reduce the risk of an accident or damage to your car, either of which could be costly to your insurance company and quite possibly to you also. If you’re paying extra for … Read More


The China trade issue is back with a vengeance!

The China trade issue is back with a vengeance!
by Robert Maire on 08-06-2019 at 10:00 am

Watching the boats go by in Shanghai-

As I write this note I happen to be looking out my hotel window over the Bund onto the brightly lit party boats cruising the Huangpu river that meanders through Shanghai.  All is well here in China and the parties on the boats with millions of LEDs go on……

The view from China is that the… Read More


Adding CDM Protection to a Real World LNA Test Case

Adding CDM Protection to a Real World LNA Test Case
by Tom Simon on 08-06-2019 at 6:00 am

In RF designs Low Noise Amplifiers (LNA) play a critical role in system operation. They simultaneously need to be extremely sensitive and noise free, yet also must be able to withstand strong signal input without distortion. LNA designers often struggle to meet device performance specifications. Their task is further complicated… Read More


eFPGA – What a great idea! But I have no idea how I’d use it!

eFPGA – What a great idea! But I have no idea how I’d use it!
by Daniel Nenni on 08-05-2019 at 10:00 am

eFPGA stands for embedded Field Programmable Grid Arrays.  An eFPGA is a programmable device like an FPGA but rather than being sold as a completed chip it is licensed as a semiconductor IP block. ASIC designers can license this IP and embed it into their own chips adding the flexibility of programmability at an incremental cost.… Read More