Today Micron announced that it is shipping 2GB Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) samples. The HMC is actually 5 stacked die connected with through-silicon-vias (TSVs). The bottom die is a logic chip and is actually manufactured for Micron in an IBM 32nm process (and doesn’t have any TSVs). The other 4 die are 4Gb DRAM die manufactured… Read More
Today TSMC announced three reference flows that they have been working on along with various EDA vendors (and ARM and perhaps other IP suppliers). The three new flows are:
With the uncertainties around timing of 450mm wafers, EUV (whether it works at all and when) and new transistor architectures it is unclear whether Moore’s law as we know it is going to continue, and in particular whether the cost per transistor is going to remain economically attractive especially for consumer markets … Read More
SEMICON Taiwan is September 3rd to 6th in TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall. Just as with Semicon West in July in San Francisco, there is lots going on. But one special focus is 3D IC. There is a 3DIC and substrate pavilion on the exhibit floor and an Advanced Packaging Symposium. Design tools, manufacturing, packaging and testing solutions… Read More
Yesterday was the 2013 GSA Silicon Summit, which was largely focused on contrasting what advances in delivering systems will depend on marching down the ladder of process nodes, and which will depend on innovations in packaging technology. So essentially contrasting Moore’s Law with what has come to be known as More Than… Read More
A couple of weeks ago was the 3D Architectures for Semiconductor Integration and Packagingconference in Redwood City. Cadence presented the changes that they have been making to their tool flow to enabled 2.5D (interposer-based) and true 3D TSV-based designs. You know what TSV stands for by now right? Through-silicon-via, … Read More
Late in January it is DesignCon at the Santa Clara convention center from January 28th-31st. Details are here.
On Tuesday from 11.05 to 11.45 Apache and Ansys will be presenting on Thermal Co-analysis of 3D IC/packages/system. This is being presented by a whole team of people: Stephen Pan, senior product specialist at ANSYS; Norman… Read More
There is obviously a lot going on in 3D IC these days. And I don’t mean at the micro level of FinFETs which is also a way of going vertical. I mean through-silicon-via (TSV) based approaches for either stacking die or putting them on an interposer. Increasingly the question is no longer if this technology will be viable (there… Read More
ANSYS and Apache are putting on a new series of seminars about designing future electronic systems. These are only getting more complex, of course, cramming more and more functionality into smaller portable devices with good battery life (and not getting too hot), integrating multiple antennas into a single platform, and TSV-based… Read More
At DesignCon earlier this year, Tim Hollis of Micron gave an interesting presentation on 3D memories. For sure the first applications of true 3D chips are going to be stacks of memory die and memory on logic. The gains from high bandwidth access to the memory and the physically closer distance from memory to processor are huge.
Micron… Read More
