ESD Protection Network Checking is Difficult But Necessary

ESD Protection Network Checking is Difficult But Necessary
by Tom Simon on 06-06-2015 at 6:00 pm

I’ve written before about anti-fuse non-volatile memory, where the gate oxide is intentionally damaged in order to create a readable bit of data, but this is what most circuit designers never want to have happen to their logic gates. However, since the advent of MOS transistors the issue of Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) and the… Read More


CTO Interview with Dr. Wim Schoenmaker of Magwel

CTO Interview with Dr. Wim Schoenmaker of Magwel
by Daniel Payne on 12-09-2014 at 7:00 pm

I visited the Magwel booth at DAC in June and chatted with Dundar Dumlugol the CEO about their EDA tools that enable 3D co-simulation and extraction. Since then I’ve made contact with their CTO, Dr. Wim Schoenmaker to better understand what it’s like to start up and run an EDA company. Magwel’s history goes back… Read More


Electro-Thermal Simulation of Power Transistors

Electro-Thermal Simulation of Power Transistors
by Daniel Payne on 09-25-2014 at 4:00 pm

Power transistors are commonly used in applications like: hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, automotive, home appliances, LED lighting, TVs, power and energy. In the old days an engineering team could build their device with power transistors, then after production run some thermal testing to see if they guessed the proper… Read More


Ensuring ESD Integrity

Ensuring ESD Integrity
by Daniel Payne on 07-31-2014 at 10:00 am

Electro Static Discharge (ESD) is a fact of life for IC designs and has been ever since electronics were first created and then started failing because of sudden, large currents flowing through the design caused by human, processing or machine contact. It’s just too expensive to layout an IC today, fabricate it, test for … Read More