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Tesla: The Day the Industry Stood Still

Tesla: The Day the Industry Stood Still
by Roger C. Lanctot on 05-05-2019 at 7:00 am

Tesla Motors held an investor event at its Palo Alto headquarters. CEO Elon Musk and a series of Tesla executives announced a new in-house developed microprocessor (already in production and being deployed in Tesla vehicles) and its plans and progress toward autonomous vehicle operation.

Tesla Autonomy Day Live Stream

To be … Read More


TSMC and Samsung 5nm Comparison

TSMC and Samsung 5nm Comparison
by Scotten Jones on 05-03-2019 at 7:00 am

Samsung and TSMC have both made recent disclosures about their 5nm process and I though it would be a good time to look at what we know about them and compare the two processes.

A lot of what has been announced about 5nm is in comparison to 7nm so we will first review 7nm.

7nm
Figure 1 compares Samsung’s 7LPP process to TSMC’s 7FF and 7FFP… Read More


Webinar: ISO 26262 Compliance

Webinar: ISO 26262 Compliance
by Daniel Payne on 05-02-2019 at 12:00 pm

To me the major idea of ISO 26262 compliance is ensuring that requirements can be traced throughout the entire design and verification process, including the use of IP blocks. The first market application that comes to mind with ISO 26262 is automotive, with its emphasis on safety because human lives are at stake. Since necessity… Read More


The Evolution of the Extension Implant Part II

The Evolution of the Extension Implant Part II
by Daniel Nenni on 05-02-2019 at 7:00 am

The use of hard masks instead of photoresist for the Extension implant is an effective way to optimize the amount of dopant that is retained along the fin sidewalls for those fins that border along photoresist edges (as discussed in Part 1 of this series).

However, hard masks do nothing to address the dominant problem driving steeper… Read More


Complex Validation Requires Scalable Measures

Complex Validation Requires Scalable Measures
by Alex Tan on 05-01-2019 at 12:00 pm

The famous Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is the Latin words for “Faster, Higher, Stronger” to a considerable degree can be adapted to our electronics industry. Traditionally the fundamental metrics we used for measuring the quality of results (QoRs) are performance, power, and area (PPA). Amidst… Read More


Compute at the Edge

Compute at the Edge
by Bernard Murphy on 05-01-2019 at 7:00 am

At first glance, this seems like a ho-hum topic- just use whatever Arm or RISC-V solution you need – but think again. We’re now expecting to push an awful lot of functionality into these edge devices. Our imaginations don’t care about power, performance and cost; everything should be possible so let’s keep adding cool features.… Read More


TSMC Technology Symposium Review Part II

TSMC Technology Symposium Review Part II
by Tom Dillinger on 04-30-2019 at 10:00 am

TSMC recently held their annual Technology Symposium in Santa Clara. Part 1 of this article focused on the semiconductor process highlights. This part reviews the advanced packaging technologies presented at the symposium.

TSMC has clearly made a transition from a “pure” wafer-level foundry to a supplier of complex integrated… Read More


2019 TSMC Technology Symposium Review Part I

2019 TSMC Technology Symposium Review Part I
by Tom Dillinger on 04-30-2019 at 7:00 am

Each year, TSMC conducts two major customer events worldwide – the TSMC Technology Symposium in the Spring and the TSMC Open Innovation Platform Ecosystem Forum in the Fall. The Technology Symposium event was recently held in Santa Clara, CA, providing an extensive update on the status of advanced semiconductor and packaging… Read More


Free Webinar: Analog Verification with Monte Carlo, PVT Corners and Worst-Case Analysis

Free Webinar: Analog Verification with Monte Carlo, PVT Corners and Worst-Case Analysis
by Tom Simon on 04-29-2019 at 4:00 pm

The letters “PVT” roll of the tongue easily enough, belying the complexity that variations in process, temperature and voltage can cause for analog designs. For semiconductor processes, there are dozens of parameters that can affect the viability of a design. It would be easy enough to optimize a circuit with only one or two varying… Read More


A Brief History of Methodics

A Brief History of Methodics
by Daniel Nenni on 04-29-2019 at 12:00 pm

Methodics has been a key player in IP management for over 10 years. In this section, Methodics shares their history, technology, and their role in developing IP Lifecycle Management (IPLM) solutions for the electronics industry.

Methodics is recognized as a premier provider of IP Lifecycle Management (IPLM) and traceability… Read More