Applications for IoT sensors are becoming more sophisticated, especially for industrial usage. Building optimal sensors for different applications requires multi-domain design, optimization and verification flows. The sensor devices are usually MEMS, and as such have electrical properties that need to be tailored to … Read More


The PTAB Inter Partes Review process: Danger, Will Robinson
Companies with significant investment in their patent portfolios have recently faced a harsh reality: their intellectual property has become a collection of paper with large targets on them. Taking aim is the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trials and Appeal Board (PTAB), and recent figures on dismissed claims shows… Read More
SPIE Advanced Lithography Preview
Next week is the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference in San Jose, the premier conference for advanced lithography used to produce state-of-the-art semiconductors. Last year I blogged after the conference about some of the key points I heard at the conference and this year I plan to do the same.
FinFET Designs Need Early Reliability Analysis
In a world with mobile and IoT devices driven by ultra-low power, high performance and small footprint transistors, FinFET based designs are ideal. FinFETs provide high current drive, low leakage and high device density. However, a FinFET transistor is more exposed to thermal issues, electro migration (EM), and electrostatic… Read More
Mentor and ASSET Intertech Do a DFT World Tour
The Mentor Graphics test folks and ASSET Intertech have teamed up to provide a series of free DFT seminars in the US, Europe, and Asia. The first one is in Austin, TX on February 19, 2015, and the last is in Tokyo on April 24. Hereis the full list of locations and dates.
The morning session covers IJTAG. The new IEEE 1687 Internal JTAG (IJTAG)… Read More
Earnings Calls: Behind the Scenes
Last weekend I wrote about the Applied Materials earnings call. And over the last couple of years I’ve written about lots of other earnings calls. Most people have never been on an earnings call, I mean in the conference room where the call is being conducted, not just listening. So I thought it might be interesting to describe how … Read More
Mentor shows post-PC industrial device approach
The term “human machine interface” originated from the factory floor. In the context of HMI, machine refers not to the computer, but to a machine tool or other instrument the computer was attached to. For decades, if an HMI was needed, it was implemented on a PC or single-board computer running Microsoft Windows. Real-time processing… Read More
MEMS Require 3D Field Solver for Accurate Cap Values
MEMS devices have become extremely important and common. Freescale last year reported its combined MEMS shipments exceeded 2 billion units. If we just examine how many accelerometers we each probably own today, it is easy to see why the market for these products is growing so rapidly. The first and most obvious device is our cell… Read More
32-bit MCUs Way to Go for IoT
Cost, power and performance, and security are the fundamental ingredients of chip development for the Internet of Things (IoT) market and that 32-bit microcontrollers are a way forward to meet these basic requirements. That was the crux of the message from the webinar held by Andes Technology Corp. on February 10, 2015.
You can… Read More
Freescale and Samsung
It is impossible to keep a secret in this business. Everyone knows that Freescale is being shopped around and there is interest.
From Yahoo Finance:
The parties that Freescale is speaking to could not be learned. The New York Post first reported that Freescale was working with investment banks to explore a sale. Freescale shares… Read More
TSMC N3 Process Technology Wiki