Modern Trends in I/O and ESD Design at TSMC OIP

Modern Trends in I/O and ESD Design at TSMC OIP
by Daniel Nenni on 11-26-2025 at 10:00 am

Introduction to Certus Semiconductor IP

It was very clear at the recent 2025 TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum that the semiconductor I/O landscape has undergone a profound transformation over the past 25 years, evolving from simple general-purpose input/output (GPIO) cells in 180nm nodes to highly complex, multi-protocol, feature-rich libraries in advanced 16nm and 22nm… Read More


2024 Outlook with Stephen Fairbanks of Certus Semiconductor

2024 Outlook with Stephen Fairbanks of Certus Semiconductor
by Daniel Nenni on 02-13-2024 at 10:00 am

Certus Official Hires subtext

Certus Semiconductor is a unique company. Their customer centric business model ensures customer success at many levels. Certus is staffed by a team of IO and ESD experts that go above and beyond what you can get from free libraries, protecting your designs and your customers products from the risks of electrostatic discharge.… Read More


The Opportunity Costs of using foundry I/O vs. high-performance custom I/O Libraries

The Opportunity Costs of using foundry I/O vs. high-performance custom I/O Libraries
by Stephen Fairbanks on 06-13-2023 at 10:00 am

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The original vision for Certus Semiconductor in 2008 was to leverage production I/O Libraries from more significant partners, starting with Freescale, and take it to smaller external customers for licensing.  This IP was proven and validated, with an excellent silicon track record and big company support; in our minds, we thought,… Read More


CEO Interview: Stephen Fairbanks of Certus Semiconductor

CEO Interview: Stephen Fairbanks of Certus Semiconductor
by Daniel Nenni on 01-20-2023 at 6:00 am

Stephen Fairbanks headshot 1 1

Trained as a semiconductor Analog and RF Circuit Designer, Stephen Fairbanks has been designing and developing process-specific I/O and ESD libraries for 24 years. His foundational training began while attending Brigham Young University designing highspeed 32 GSPS data acquisition systems and RF interfaces for a time-of-flight… Read More