IC layouts go through extensive design rule checking to ensure correctness, before being accepted for fabrication at a foundry or IDM. There’s something called the antenna effect that happens during chip manufacturing where plasma-induced damage (PID) can lower the reliability of MOSFET devices. Layout designers run Design… Read More


Arteris is Unleashing Innovation by Breaking Down the Memory Wall
There is a lot of discussion about removing barriers to innovation these days. Semiconductor systems are at the heart of unlocking many forms of technical innovation, if only we could address issues such as the slowing of Moore’s Law, reduction of power consumption, enhancement of security and reliability and so on. But there … Read More
2024 Outlook with Elad Alon of Blue Cheetah Analog Design
We have been working with Blue Cheetah Analog Design for three years now with great success. With new process nodes coming faster than ever before and with chiplets being pushed to the forefront of technology, the die-to-die interconnect traffic on SemiWiki has never been greater and chiplets is one of our top search terms.
Tell… Read More
Automotive Electronics Trends are Shaping System Design Constraints
Something is brewing in automotive electronics. Within a one-month window most of the product announcements and pitches to which I am being invited are on automotive topics. Automotive markets have long been one of the primary targets for suppliers to system designers, but this level of alignment in announcements seems more … Read More
2024 Outlook with Jim Cantele of Altair
Jim Cantele, global SVP of sales and technology at Altair, is an electronics industry veteran with deep knowledge of EDA software and services. Before joining Altair during the acquisition of Runtime Design Automation in 2017, Jim held executive-level management positions at a number of leading EDA and semiconductor companies,… Read More
No! TSMC does not Make 90% of Advanced Silicon
Throughout the debate on fab incentives and the Chips Act I keep seeing comments like; TSMC makes >90% of all advanced silicon, or sometimes Taiwan make >90% of all advanced silicon. This kind of ill-defined and grossly inaccurate statement drives me crazy. I just saw someone make that same claim in the SemiWiki forums and… Read More
2024 Outlook with Hassan Triqui CEO of Secure-IC
Hassan TRIQUI has over 20 years of experience in the technology sector. Prior to spearheading Secure-IC’s development into a major player in embedded cybersecurity solutions, Hassan was a former senior executive at Thales and Thomson. Hassan is a pioneer, a Brittany Tech patriot, and passionate about providing solutions that… Read More
How Sarcina Technology Makes Advanced Semiconductor Package Design Easier
For a long time, package engineering was part of the cleanup crew for chip design. The glory was all around the design of advance monolithic chips on the latest technology node. Once the design was done, the package/test team would take the design over the finish line, adding the required I/O specs, lead frame, load board and test … Read More
Intel and TSMC IDM 2024 Discussions
In December 2023, we published the Intel Revenue forecast for external wafer sales, gave a breakdown on how customers plan to ramp the foundry. The forecast is still valid (it assumes Intel executes on all plans) but since then we have a better understanding of Intel’s strategy and scenarios that could unfold.
The scenarios… Read More
Podcast EP211:A Look at the Inner Workings of the CHIPS and Science Act with Mike O’Brien
Dan is joined by Mike O’Brien. Mike was recently the vice president of aerospace and government at Synopsys, He has 40 years of experience in the semiconductor, software and computer industries. In his 27 years in EDA and IP at Synopsys and Cadence, Mike helped build new lines of business including outsourced design services,… Read More
TSMC N3 Process Technology Wiki