SemiWiki – Page 368 – The Open Forum for Semiconductor Professionals

January 10, 2020August 9, 2020

ASML EUV China Chip Equip Risk

ASML EUV China Chip Equip Risk
by Robert Maire on 01-10-2020 at 10:00 am
Categories: China, Lithography, Semiconductor Advisors, Semiconductor Services
5 Comments

Is ASML first clandestine shot in US war on China chips?
Will the action extend further to other chip equip cos?
China chip cold conflict warming up?

It would appear from a Reuters report yesterday that a behind the scenes “cold war” between the US and China in the chip business has just been exposed and has the potential to warm up a bit to include not just the Dutch company, ASML, but other US based companies.

Reuters has publicly confirmed what had been rumored in the industry that ASML was not going to export an EUV tool ordered by SMIC (of China) almost 2 years ago.

More importantly it is clear that the action is the result of direct US government pressure to deny the semiconductor equipment to China in the name of international security

One tool doesn’t matter but is this the tip of the iceberg?
One EUV scanner doesn’t really matter much in the larger scheme of the semiconductor industry. It hardly matters to ASML as there are more than enough takers for the tool if it doesn’t ship to China and in fact may have already been shipped out to another customer…so the near term impact on ASML is essentially near zero.

The question is the longer term impact.
Will US companies be next to be pressured to stop exporting leading edge equipment….will the pressure increase to AMAT, KLAC & LRCX?

What is the longer term impact for ASML? Will they never be allowed to ship and EUV tool to China? China will likely become the largest single market for semiconductor equipment and for some companies it is already their biggest customer.

Going back to a cold war footing?
For many years US semiconductor equipment exports to China were highly limited to products at least two generations behind the leading edge and export licenses were tightly controlled. While export license requirements still exist, their approval has been more of a rubber stamp over the last several years as trade with China has become a huge part of the industry.

All it would take would be an enforcement of existing rules to stem the flow of equipment thus cutting off the oxygen that China’s Chip industry desperately needs

We predicted this exact scenario of ASML, SMIC & China in May of 2018
We have been warning about the problems between the US and China in chips for several years now, well before anyone else woke up to the issue.

In fact we predicted that ASML’s EUV tool would become the pawn in the US/China chip conflict in a note we sent out in May of 2018.

We think it is worth your while to re-read this note we published in May 2018 as it describes the then current circumstances that we suggested would lead to the blockage of an EUV tool.

Please click the link below:

China Semiconductor Equipment China Sales at Risk

We laid out the exact scenario we have now experienced. ASML is the perfect pawn as it is not a US company and not seen as a “direct” US action. It also limits fallout in the US as no US company is directly impacted.

Now that the subterfuge has been exposed, whats next?
China was not likely naive enough to believe that the Dutch government acted on its own and likely was aware of the clandestine activities being waged against them.

This likely will impact current ongoing agreements and negotiations between China and the US and will not make things any easier.

China will likely “triple down” on efforts to develop internal independent chip manufacturing capability.

Since there is truly no alternative to the 100% lock that ASML has on the market, China will likely wage a huge pressure war on the Dutch to release the tool and allow further sales

Will the embargo spread?
While an EUV is clearly the linchpin and central tool of any advanced fab there are still a lot of other tools needed to enable to overall process. Deposition, etch, metrology, inspection etc;.

The US government could very easily start to slow down or curtail export licenses, as it did in the past, and slowly starve the Chinese chip industry of the infrastructure it imports. For all we know this could already be in the works.

Its difficult to tell the Dutch not to ship equipment to China while US companies are still sending boat loads of equipment there.

It would be only logical for the US to take a closer look at export licenses granted to US companies if only to share the pain with the Dutch and do our part of keeping China at bay.

Who’s exposed and “at risk” of a spreading embargo?
Likely at the top of our list is KLAC. China represents not just KLAC” s biggest customer (taken together) but also the fastest growing region (others have been in longer term decline). After lithography tools, metrology and inspection tools made by KLAC are the next most valuable as they help bring a process up to yield and figure out all the problems. This is most essential to new start ups like the Chinese, who have a lot to learn about making chips.

Applied and Lam are also very exposed and Applied has been a pioneer in China and has a huge operation there.

Non US winners
Obviously non US companies, such as TEL, Hitachi, ASMI, NVMI, Semes and a host of others all benefit as the Chinese will avoid US equipment like the plague (If they hadn’t already learned this lesson at Jinhua’s now shuttered fab…).

The reality is that you can’t have a leading edge fab without a significant amount of US equipment and it will take China a very long time to copy/steal a lot of the technology.

The Stocks
While the immediate impact is minimal, we think the China risk has just gotten a lot larger that US companies may be forced into being part of an embargo.

We have already been of the view that the downside beta in the stocks was higher than the upside beta and this revelation has further added to the downside beta with a very high risk problem.

There is no clear short or long term solution and exposing the can of worms to the light just enflames the situation..

We may want to be more defensive and look at “consumable” chip related stocks or some select foreign stocks to try to hedge against US based equipment risk.

With memory’s recovery coming along slowly a problem in China would further complicate the early stages of an industry recovery that we are in.

We have to be very mindful of the fact that without China, the US equipment industry would be down significantly as compared to past performance so any China issues could cause negative results quickly.

January 10, 2020May 4, 2022

CES 2020: Still no Flying Cars

CES 2020: Still no Flying Cars
by Bill Jewell on 01-10-2020 at 6:00 am
Categories: Automotive, Events, Semiconductor Intelligence, Semiconductor Services
2 Comments

CES 2020 is being held this week in Las Vegas with over 4,500 exhibiting companies and over 175,000 attendees. The show includes a broader industry than just electronics, which led to it being renamed CES (previously the Consumer Electronics Show) and the sponsoring organization changing its name from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). CES now includes software, content and other supporting technologies.

CTA projected the overall U.S. consumer technology market will hit $422 billion in 2020, up 4% from 2019. Smartphones continue to be the largest category at $77.8 billion and 166 million units. Laptop PCs are expected to amount to $33.3 billion and televisions $17.6 billion. These three large categories are growing relatively slowly, up 3% or less from 2019. In-vehicle technology is the fastest growing large category at $18.5 billion and 6% growth. In-vehicle technology is driven by increasing use of electronics for safety systems, driver assistance, navigation, communication and entertainment. Several emerging consumer electronics applications should show strong growth in 2020. Wireless earbuds are projected to grow 31%. Other strong growing categories are digital health devices at 16%, smart speakers (such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home) at 14%, and smart home devices at 4%.

The “internet of things” (IoT) term was coined several years ago to refer to the broad range of devices which rely on internet connectivity for communication and control. At CES this year, the CTA proposed IoT should now stand for “Intelligence of Things” as artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing being adopted in devices.

What will the new decade bring us? Will we finally get flying cars? Not likely, but we should see more self-driving cars on the road by the end of the decade. According to CTA, we should also see the beginnings of flying taxis, electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, which can be summoned for a ride like Uber or Lyft. Bell (top) and Hyundai showed prototypes of these at CES.

Electric cars should become more commonplace in the 2020s. A CES session on electric vehicles predicted electric vehicles (EVs) will have cost parity with traditional cars by 2025. EVs should have average lifetimes of at least 12 years compared to about 8 years for traditional gasoline/diesel cars. Most EVs should have a range of 250 to 300 miles. Growing networks of charging stations will enable recharges in 20 to 60 minutes. Self-driving cars are still in the experimental stage, but by the end of the decade they should be more common on roads. Audi, Hyundai and Toyota were among the companies displaying prototype self-driving vehicles at CES. Toyota display an EV van (e-Palette) which would include robots (Micro Palette) to make the final delivery. Mercedes-Benz displayed its Vision AVTR concept self-driving car. Inspired by the movie Avatar, Mercedes described the vehicle as “holistic, immersive and intuitive”.

CES covers a large range of technology including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, smart houses, smart cities, digital health, sports technology, travel & tourism, audio/video, virtual reality & gaming, drones, wireless and computing. A large area of CES was devoted to AI and robotics. Numerous robots were on display. Most were limited function robots such as vacuums, window washers, delivery platforms, information kiosks, and toys. There were robot dogs and cats which mimic pets without the feeding, waste disposal and vet bills. We have posted pictures of some of these robots on our website.

Many of the products shown at CES are innovative and potentially useful. Others are questionable as to whether they fill a real need. Some of the more innovative products include a system which uses IR (infrared) signals to power nearby sensors, eliminating the need to charge or replace batteries. An experimental system is aimed at powering remote sensors by harnessing cellular radio signals and other radio waves in the air. A platform for stroke recovery uses a dance type video game. Some of the questionable products include a suitcase which follows you and a diaper with sensors to detect waste (isn’t that what a nose is for?).

We at Semiconductor Intelligence attended the press conferences of Panasonic and Sony and the keynote address by Samsung president and CEO HS Kim.

Panasonic’s press conference promoted the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo where it supplies the displays and other technology at the Olympic Stadium. The conference included an appearance by Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who will work with Panasonic along with other athletes. Panasonic supplies the displays used in Disney’s new Star Wars sections of its theme parks in Florida and California. Automotive is a major focus for Panasonic. It is the largest supplier of EV batteries and supplies information and entertainment systems. Panasonic is working with Tropos Motors, which makes EVs including small trucks for deliveries. Panasonic and the state of Utah are developing a transportation data network. Panasonic is the largest supplier of inflight entertainment systems and is developing a system to cancel out airplane engine noise without headphones. The press conference also mentioned Panasonic’s Lumix cameras, professional camcorders, and OLED TVs.

Sony’s press conference pushed its new 8K TVs and 360-degree reality TV. Sony will introduce its latest video game system toward the end of this year. The PlayStation 5 will feature 3D audio, ultra-high speed SSD and ultra HD Blu-ray. In sports, Sony will use 5G to transmit camera images without the need for cabling. The next megatrend, according to Sony, is mobility. They showed a prototype EV car which features Sony CMOS image sensors, a panoramic display, LIDAR, 33 sensors, and software updated wirelessly.

Samsung Consumer Electronics president and CEO Hyun-Suk Kim gave one of the keynote addresses. He emphasized a new “age of experience” where most people will value experiences over products. He demonstrated Ballie, a softball type robot which follows you and can control home functions through voice commands. Samsung showed several health-related products including a Galaxy watch which detects stress and offers stress relief suggestions. An exercise system uses motion capture to evaluate yoga poses and other exercises and suggest improvements. A cardiac rehab system provided home-based guidance using wearables and smartphone. The process is supervised by a remote therapist. Samsung supplies several smart home devices including robotic vacuums and smart refrigerators which can suggest menus and order food. Samsung demonstrated a gait enhancement and motivating system (GEMS) which uses a gadget around a person’s waist and legs along with VR glasses to analyze motion and provide coaching. The GEMS system can also be used in rehab. Samsung is targeting smart cities with energy sensors & controls and 5G telematics for transportation monitoring and control.

The future of consumer electronics is diverse. Vehicle technology and IoT (Internet of Things or Intelligence of Things) will be key drivers. Traditional drivers such as smartphones, televisions, laptop PCs and tablets are reaching saturation. However, smartphones will have a boost in the next couple of years due to 5G and televisions will see growth from 8K displays. Increasing use of AI in electronics should lead to practical self-driving vehicles and more functional robots by the end of this decade. But still no flying cars!

Also Read:

Semiconductor CapEx Warning

Electronics, COVID-19, and Ukraine

Semiconductor Growth Moderating

January 9, 2020April 15, 2022

Mixel Makes Major Move on MIPI D-PHY v2.5

Mixel Makes Major Move on MIPI D-PHY v2.5
by Tom Simon on 01-09-2020 at 10:00 am
Categories: Automotive, IP, Mixel, Mobile

The MIPI Alliance has been running hard since 2003 to stay on top of the changes in the mobile industry. MIPI now has 250 member companies and 12 active working groups, all focused on creating standards for connecting the building blocks in mobile systems. MIPI based interfaces are now used in cars, drones, IoT devices, and of course phones and tablets, among other things.

A lot has changed since 2003. Higher resolution cameras are common and increasing numbers of cameras are used in new systems. Frequently, leading-edge cars have 8 cameras and multiple displays. Also interface operating distance has increased. Often cameras and displays in cars are several meters away from application processors. Of course, power requirements are a constant factor for any mobile system.

The latest D-PHY v2.5 specification from MIPI was approved in October of 2019. It includes many new features that all address newer mobile system requirements. The Fast Bus Turnaround (BTA) feature lets systems use the same link for high speed data and also sending commands back in the reverse direction, reducing the number of wires needed.

Another important new feature is Alternate Low Power (ALP), which replaces the legacy Low Power signaling mode. It reduces power consumption on links up to 4 meters by lowering signaling voltage. The combination of BTA and ALP allows implementation of Unified Serial Link (USL) which is supported by MIPI CSI-2 v3.0, released in September of 2019. It offers an in-band control mechanism where there is no need for a separate set of wires and connections for a command line.

D PHY Arcitecure

Mixel has just announced its D-PHY v2.5 IP with these new features and is backwards compatible with the earlier v2.1, v1.2 and v1.1 versions. It offers 1 clock lane and 4 data lanes. With these lanes running at 4.5 Gbps, the aggregate for the PHY is 18 Gbps. It can be configured as a MIPI Master or MIPI Slave, supporting CSI-2 and DSI/DSI-2 applications. Their D-PHY can switch during normal operation between high power and low power operation, and the bidirectional lanes can switch direction. These mode and direction changes can be performed without glitching or data loss.

Mixel takes the approach of offering the digital Control and Interface Logic (CIL) as a soft IP view in the form of RTL and STA constraints. The mixed signal portion is provided as hard IP that includes GDS, CDL, LEF and LIB. This unique approach of a combination of hard and soft IP promises to offer design flexibility and easier implementation.

The Mixel D-PHY v2.5 offering is impressive because the spec approval was just in October. Mixel has a good track record of proven silicon, with previous MIPI PHY IP delivered successfully on 9 different nodes at 8 different foundries.

MIPI based systems are increasingly important because of the diversity of their applications. Having standards for connecting mobile processors and their peripherals improves performance and reduces costs for suppliers and consumers. To learn more about the new Mixel D-PHY v2.5 IP offering I suggest looking at the announcement on their website.

Also Read:

MIPI gaining traction in vehicle ADAS and ADS

A MIPI CSI-2/MIPI D-PHY Solution for AI Edge Devices

FD-SOI Offers Refreshing Performance and Flexibility for Mobile Applications

January 9, 2020July 6, 2020

Innovation in Verification – January 2020

Innovation in Verification – January 2020
by Bernard Murphy on 01-09-2020 at 6:00 am
Categories: AI, EDA

I’m kicking off a blog series which should appeal to many of us in functional verification. Paul Cunningham (GM of the Verification Group at Cadence), Jim Hogan (angel investor and board member extraordinaire) and I (sometime blogger) like to noodle from time to time on papers and other verification articles which inspire us.

We want to support and appreciate innovation in this area so we’re taking our noodlings public. Please let us know what you think and please send any suggestions on papers or articles for us to discuss in future blogs. Ideas must be published in a peer-reviewed forum, generally available to all readers (or through subscription to IEEE or ACM).

The Innovation
We’ll start with “Optimizing Random Test Constraints Using Machine Learning Algorithms” by Stan Sokorac at Arm. This won a best paper award at DVCon a couple of years ago.

Verification depends heavily on generating pseudo random sequences. Beyond easy tests, we poke around semi-randomly, aiming for a lucky find here and there to push coverage higher. It’s intuitive to believe that machine learning could improve this, helping find bugs faster or find more bugs. So this paper is immediately eye-catching.

Stan first defines a new type of coverage to isolate rare states, based on toggle-pair states where two flops toggle close (in time) to each other. He reasons that such events should be an indicator to tests which could be tweaked to improve coverage. This metric is used in test selection in the following steps.

His first learning method uses a genetic algorithm to evolve the test mix between generations, mutating versions of previous generation tests with a bias to those that hit rare toggle-pair states. Mutation depends on random test constraints being parameterized through command-line options. Per pass, mutation tweaks these options and starts from a new random seed. Stan reports that this method alone significantly improves coverage, using less tests.

Another approach uses unsupervised learning together with the previous method, aiming to avoid biases in large designs in which mutation alone may drive convergence only in a subset of these areas.

Paul’s thoughts
I think of Stan’s “toggle pair” coverage as adding an extra dimension to traditional flop coverage – not unlike looking at branch coverage vs. line coverage in software programming. The more dimensionality there is to a coverage metric the richer it is, while the harder it is to cover the space.

The toggle pair metric highlights non-trivial bugs related to close (time) proximity events. That’s an important class, however it doesn’t cover events, also important, where cause and effect are separated by many clock cycles.

The ML method Stan uses is a combination of a genetic algorithm and k-means clustering. Stan suggests and I would like to see the work extended to leverage neural networks, especially since the “k” value for the number of clusters is not automated in this solution.

Another challenge for ML is what knobs/parameters to control. The Arm testbench has 150 command-line options controlling testbench behavior. Stan’s genetic algorithm mutates these knob settings to configure tests for high coverage in a small number of tests. Very cool, but would it work as well if the testbench didn’t have that many options?

I really enjoyed reading this paper and the results are very compelling, given that Stan is running on production testbenches used to verify production CPUs at Arm. His ML optimized regression doubles the number of failing tests (increasing bugs found) in 10X less simulation cycles than the standard flow.

Jim’s thoughts
I’m looking at this as an investor. Is there enough market demand to draw seed funding or even full-round funding to an early-stage company, or to prompt a strategic investor to buy that company once the value proposition is reasonably proven? The verification problem is definitely growing more complex and the market is growing at double digits. So that’s a good start.

I remember a company I worked with many years ago, which triggers some questions for me. They had a great technology, but it wasn’t really a product. You could imagine seed funding followed by a quick acquisition, but it wouldn’t get to a full round. I see the same thing here.

A second caution (same example) was the level of expertise required to use the tech. In that case it was advanced DFT and formal proving (still expert-only in those days). This restricted usage to PhD types. Might this have similar problems, for example in biases in AI training?

My third caution would be market timing. Introducing a great solution at the wrong time is just as bad as having a terrible solution. Is this solution going to depend on another technology to be introduced or mature (perhaps PSS)? Will it take off only when happens? If so, better to continue to evolve the solution in-house until timing is better.

My Thoughts
Paul talked about dependency on mutating command line options. Contrast this with diddling with constraint parameters where noise can be higher than signal in trying to extract trends for coverage. Command-line options shed a lot of that noise because there should be more design intent implicit in the options, at least for this example.

I think Stan is scratching at the surface of something important here – maybe there’s a more systematic yet still high-level control point for ML plus randomization. PSS is one platform on which this might evolve. Would be interesting to see application at that level.

To see the next paper, click HERE.

January 8, 2020July 28, 2020

Saving Time in Physical Verification by Reusing Metadata

Saving Time in Physical Verification by Reusing Metadata
by Daniel Payne on 01-08-2020 at 10:00 am
Categories: EDA, Siemens EDA
1 Comment

voltage propagation cross reference data min

Physical verification is an important and necessary step in the process to tapeout an IC design, and the foundries define sign-off qualification steps for:

Physical validation
Circuit validation
Reliability verification

This sounds quite reasonable until you actually go through the steps only to discover that some of the same metadata is being generated multiple times, even when there’s no change to input files, so this is just duplicating efforts without any benefits.

Let’s talk about two examples. Changing interconnect layout in the back-end doesn’t effect front-end schematics, but a verification flow would generate and verify schematic information during each run. An ECO for Back End Of Line (BEOL) would still start jobs on the Front End Of Line (FEOL) layers for extraction and validation, although the FEOL layers haven’t changed.

One smart solution to this dilemma comes from Mentor in their Calibre PERC tool, as they have figured out a method for IC designers to only generate design metadata one time, not multiple times. Four areas that can now use one-time metadata generation include:

Voltage Aware Design Rule Checking (VA-DRC)
Point to Point (P2P) Verification
Current Density (CD) Verification
Failure Analysis (FA) and design profiling

Reliability Verification Flows

VA-DRC can have a rule for adjacent metal spacing that depends on the voltage levels, and the Calibre PERC tool knows how to propagate voltages from the top layout ports then check the rules based on nets of interest. During subsequent design rechecking the tool knows how to re-use the initial voltage propagation and netlist cross-referencing information. Here’s a diagram of how this rechecking happens:

Reuse of voltage propagation and cross-referencing

In theory this sounds useful, but what about in practice? Here’s a table to show how a standard VA-DRC flow can be improved by 2-8X during reruns, depending on how much reuse there is:

Calibre PERC Flows after initial Verification Run

DFM and Failure Analysis Flows

In these flows we have metadata generated from many design profile sources:

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images
Lithographic and Optical Process Correction (OPC) hotspots
Test hotspots
DRM yield detractors

By saving metadata elements for reuse the TAT is reduced, and it aids in debugging, pre-silicon and post-silicon analysis.

Metadata used in DFM and Failure Analysis

Another way to reduce TAT in a DFM analysis flow is to use a centralized, reference pattern library, so that you can identify any new, existing and common information with any new layout as shown below:

Comparing Layout Patterns

Libraries are built for reference, common and new patterns, then hotspots found in the new layout can be overlaid with the reference to quicker debugging and Root Cause Deconvolution (RCD):

DFM and FA hotspot analysis

Summary

I just love the familiar adage, “Work smarter, not harder.” That’s exactly what the engineering team at Mentor has accomplished using Calibre PERC to reuse metadata during sign-off validation steps, speeding up the time by not generating duplicate metadata. Other benefits include reducing CPU loading, all while keeping the same accuracy of results. Engineers will experience improvements in debugging, DFM optimization and FA by reusing metadata.

Read the complete 6 page white paper here, Increase Productivity by Reusing Metadata for Signoff & ECOs.

Related Blogs

January 8, 2020August 22, 2024

IEDM 2019 – IBM and Leti

IEDM 2019 – IBM and Leti
by Scotten Jones on 01-08-2020 at 6:00 am
Categories: GlobalFoundries, Samsung Foundry, Semiconductor Services, TechInsights
3 Comments

IBM and Leti each presented several papers at IEDM including a joint nanosheet paper. I had the opportunity to sit down with Huiming Bu, director of advanced logic & memory tech and Veeraraghavan Basker, senior engineer from IBM and then in a separate interview Francois Andrieu, head of advanced CMOS laboratory and Shay Reboh, Process & integration engineer, of Leti to discuss their work.

IBM interview

IBM has a development line in in Albany at the CNSE center where they developed the 5nm technology they have now transferred to Samsung and they are now doing 3/2nm work. Tool reuse versus 5nm is high although there is a change in device architecture that requires some unique tools. When they start work on a new device, they use test structures to evaluate the device and materials before doing a shrink. If you use node-1 to develop materials and devices, then the shrink becomes an engineering problem.

One IBM paper was “Multiple-Vt Solutions in Nanosheet Technology for High Performance and Low Power Applications”. One key challenge for horizontal stacked nanosheets is how to achieve multiple threshold voltages (Vts). With FinFETs the current approach is to use stacks of various work function metals but in horizontal nanosheets the sheet to sheet spacing needs to be as small as possible to minimize capacitance and maximize performance.

IBM has a long history of using dipoles to tune Vts. When high-k metal gates (HKMG) were first introduced IBM, used a gate-first approach including the use of dipoles. The rest of the industry went with gate-last and that has become the dominant HKMG approach, but IBM’s early experience with dipoles provide them with experience that is proving useful for nanowires. Replacing a stack of work function metals with dipoles enables multiple Vts in nanosheets and removes a key roadblock to nanosheet adoption.

Another challenge for horizontal stacked nanosheets is the need to first recess the SiGe layers without etching silicon and later to etch out the SiGe layers to release the Si layers, once again without etching silicon. In “A Novel Dry Selective Etch of SiGe for the Enablement of High Performance Logic Stacked Gate-All-Around NanoSheet Devices” IBM discussed work they have done with Tokyo Electron to use a gas phase isotropic etch (authors note, I believe this is TEL’s Certas Wing tool). They were able to achieve 150:1 selectivity for SiGe(25%) versus Si.

In a third paper we discussed, “Full Bottom Dielectric Isolation to Enable Stacked Nanosheet Transistor for Low Power and High Performance Applications” IBM disclosed a process whereby they create a dielectric under the stacked horizontal nanosheet stack reducing parasitic capacitance and improving performance. The dielectric is silicon nitride based but they wouldn’t disclose how it was formed. The initial nanosheet stack is grown right on silicon to provide crystalline epitaxial growth so somehow, they are etching out underneath the stack and refilling.

They also discussed that at a high level nanosheet offer >25% performance improvement at constant power or a 50% power reduction at the same performance versus a 7nm FinFET. 6, 5, 4nm FinFETs will not be as good as a nanosheet. Nanosheets also offer the ability to lithographically define the width creating nanowires for the best electrostatic and nanosheets for higher drive current on the same process. Around 2012 IBM created the name nanosheet and in 2015 with GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Samsung published a 5nm nanosheet paper. Authors note, Samsung has announced a 3nm nanosheet process due in 2021 based on the joint work.

First generation nanosheets will be silicon. I asked about alternate materials for future nanosheets and they said unless there is a breakthrough in the back-end-of-line (BEOL) or parasitics, alternate materials won’t be worth the complexity. You can align the silicon orientation for nanosheets for higher mobility. Going beyond nanosheets to CFETs (basically stacked nanosheets where n and p type devices are stacked) you can orient nFETs to 100 and pFETs to 110 to maximize mobility for both. I asked them if this is what comes after nanosheets and they said they couldn’t comment.

Leti interview

In my Leti interview we discussed the joint paper they did with IBM, “Imaging, Modeling and Engineering of Strain in Gate-All-Around Nanosheet Transistors”. In this work, once again focused on nanosheets/nanowires they used Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) imaging to image the lattice constants and measure strain. This technique allows strain to be visualized on an atomic scale.

Figure 1 illustrates the initial modeling they did of the structure that made them expect it be stressed slightly tensile.

Figure 1. Nanosheet strain modeling, image provided by Leti.

What they found when they imaged the channel was the integrated flow compressively stressed the channels from the Inter-Level-Dielectric (ILD) layers as opposed to the tensile stress they expected from modeling. You can modulate the stress from the gate stack and contacts, Leti has a lot of expertise at managing stress and with this technique they can calibrate their models. Figure 2 illustrates the results.

Figure 2. TEM image of channel strain, image provide by Leti.

The stress measurement technique used here was developed at Leti and uses a whole series of specialty techniques to make it more precise and sensitive. They also found that when you deposit an amorphous dummy gate and then recrystallize it to polysilicon, the volume reduction creates pockets and tensile strain.

Summary

The work presented at IEDM by IBM and Leti on nanosheets continues to move the technology toward volume manufacturing with improved etching, dipole-based Vt control, reduced parasitic capacitance by introducing dielectric layers under the stack, and improved understanding of stress in the nanosheet stack. Stress impacts mobility and therefore device performance and is a key parameter to optimize.

January 7, 2020July 6, 2020

China in 2020: Electric vehicles rebound, the rise of the Greater Bay Area

China in 2020: Electric vehicles rebound, the rise of the Greater Bay Area
by Gordon Orr on 01-07-2020 at 10:00 am
Categories: Automotive, China

This is the third of a five part series

Vehicle manufacturers in China had a tough 2018 and 2019. The overall market fell 8 percent by volume in 2018 and another 3 percent in the year to October 2019. Looking forward, demand faces several headwinds. Anyone spending time in a major city realizes just how unpleasant the experience of owning a car can be with the lack of parking and permanent traffic jams. On top of that, local authorities ration availability and increase the cost of getting a license plate to more than the cost of the car. Ride sharing is extremely cheap and available. It is possible that we have seen the peak of the internal combustion engine vehicle market in China.

In 2020, as Tesla breaks ground on its 100 percent-owned factory in Shanghai, the industry bright spot will be electric vehicles. Again, local governments play a critical role along with changing consumer tastes. Cities are switching their bus fleets to electric (close to 25 percent of all buses sold in China will likely be electric in 2019, perhaps 35 percent in 2020) and are mandating that taxi fleets shift to electric and reducing the cost of acquiring a license plate for EVs. Cities are rolling out networks of charging stations well ahead of demand. It is common to see car parks where the only spaces are those next to the EV charging stations.

Middle class consumers who are increasingly sensitive to air pollution are investigating EVs and realizing that their range exceeds that which they ever travel in a single car journey. Vehicle OEMs are responding: between 2019 and 2021 more than 200 EV models will launch . EVs represent close to 5 percent of automotive sales in 2019 (up to 20 percent in major cities) and could easily step up to 7 percent in 2020 if central government decides to include EV subsidies in any stimulus program.

China’s EV market is already 3-4 times the size of the US market. This multiple will grow, giving market leaders in China the opportunity to become world leaders in developing and manufacturing EVs, their batteries, and charging infrastructure.

Realizing Parts of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) Initiative
The GBA initiative remains a priority for President Xi Jinping. As the region covers around 15 percent of China’s GDP and is the center of innovation for many of China’s priority industries, the GBA’s success is also important for national economic growth.

The Greater Bay Area will become more concrete (literally) in 2020 as key pieces of its physical infrastructure are built. Bridges, roads, and railways to connect its east and west more closely will start construction. This will bring previously remote areas in the West of the delta much closer to existing economic hubs in the East. Developers will follow quickly to build homes, factories, and business parks in the West. Homes are critically important as this will take pressure off housing prices in Shenzhen, allowing more of China’s young talent to migrate into this vibrant hub for work. Factories that relocate to the Western side of the region will still be able to get their goods to Hong Kong or Shenzhen airport within an hour for shipment globally, using the new (and very underused) Hong Kong Zhuhai bridge.

Beyond infrastructure the GBA plan contains hundreds of softer goals, giving cities in the GBA priority sectors to focus on and creating mechanisms for cities that have historically competed aggressively to work more closely together.

Businesses need strategies for the GBA in 2020 that focus on two things. One – how to take advantage of new regional infrastructure. Two – how to shape still evolving GBA policy to their advantage, rather than reacting once policy is defined.

January 7, 2020April 1, 2020

Tortuga Logic Scores Role in DoD Security Programs

Tortuga Logic Scores Role in DoD Security Programs
by Bernard Murphy on 01-07-2020 at 6:00 am
Categories: IP, Security, Tortuga Logic
2 Comments

It should be no surprise in the current climate that the US government is ramping up investment in microelectronics security, particularly with an eye on China and investments they are making in the same area. This has two major thrusts as I read it: to ensure trusted and assured microelectronics are being used in US defense systems and to ensure that US defense electronics design practices are at least on a par with commercial practices and move much more rapidly in innovation and adoption of innovation.

From 2003 through 2016, the first of these objectives was met through use of accepted domestic trusted foundries but it was already clear that option would be challenging, especially since competitive bidding has driven more purchasing to commercial off-the-shelf-solutions (COTS), whose builders must manufacture overseas to meet competitive price, performance and power targets. Now there’s a big push to allow more trusted suppliers building in state-of-the-art foundries and using modern trust and assurance methods to certify their products.

There’s also a push to encourage multiple commercial foundry and packaging options onshore. It will be interesting to see how that works out. The DoD seems to be committed to driving business which will encourage growth and commercial competitiveness in such foundries. I speculate that they may want to mimic aspects of Chinese investment in their onshore manufacturing. Some of this will certainly be needed in support of rad-hard processes and design technologies for space and nuclear programs.

The second part of the program is under MINSEC (Microelectronics Innovation for National Security) and aims to pursue an aggressive modernization of the entire defense microelectronics infrastructure in the US: updated assurance policies and guidance, robust verification and validation, building state of art expertise (including SoC design) and engagement with academia, very active and disruptive R&D and modernizing defense systems, including reducing reliance on legacy components. Again, if China can do it, we can too.

MINSEC funding is currently modest, $2B to start, but acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for systems engineering Kristen Baldwin says there is broad recognition among legislators of the strategic importance of microelectronics leadership to the US in general and defense electronics in particular. China is investing $150B in microelectronics so it’s pretty clear where our competition stands.

I have written before about Tortuga and their design for security solutions. They have recently been awarded contracts in both of these areas. The first will use their RADIX-S platform for the detection and prevention of hardware vulnerabilities. RADIX-S works with existing simulation-based flows to detect and pinpoint potential security issues in pre-silicon designs. The platform is already proven with Cadence, Mentor and Synopsys-based flows.

The second program is based on their RADIX-M emulation-based platform, playing into the MINSEC theme of bringing defense design up to modern design standard in use of tools like emulation. Here, Tortuga will be working with the DoD and partners to advance detection of vulnerabilities crossing between hardware and software, a unique strength for the Tortuga products as far as I know.

Some of this work will be piloted by an outfit called AFWERX, which itself seems to be a major innovation in the way the government can work with technology. Hosted by the Air Force, this is an agile program to break out of traditional bureaucratic government bounds to drive fast innovation in multiple areas. Good to see that it can be possible to change calcified practices, even in the government.

You can learn more about the Tortuga wins HERE.

January 6, 2020August 31, 2020

PAVE360 is Fully Armed!

PAVE360 is Fully Armed!
by Daniel Nenni on 01-06-2020 at 12:00 pm
Categories: Automotive, EDA, Siemens EDA

PAve360 and Arm IP accelerates innovation

Siemens today announced a partnership with Arm to “accelerate the future of mobility by redefining design capabilities for complex electronic systems”. I spent time with David Fritz to understand what this really means. You may remember David from our webinar PAVE360: Of SoCs, Digital Twins, and Validating Autonomous Vehicle Behavior. David is the Global Technology Manager for Autonomous and ADAS at Siemens. But first some cut and paste from the press release which is better than most:

“Siemens’ PAVE360™ digital twin environment, featuring Arm IP, applies high-fidelity modeling techniques from sensors and ICs to vehicle dynamics and the environment within which a vehicle operates. Using Arm IP, including Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) products with functional safety support, digital twin models can run entire software stacks providing early metrics of power and performance while operating in the context of a high-fidelity model of the vehicle and its environment, helping deliver a new future of mobility.

Using Siemens’ PAVE360 with Arm automotive IP, automakers and suppliers can simulate and verify sub-system and system on chip (SoC) designs, and better understand how they perform within a vehicle design from the silicon level up, long before the vehicle is built. Arm’s automotive IP is helping to democratize the ability to create safety-enabled silicon, bringing it within reach of the entire automotive supply chain. By rethinking IC design for the automotive industry, manufacturers can consolidate electronic control units (ECUs), leading to thousands of dollars in savings per vehicle by reducing the number of circuit boards and meters of wire within the vehicle design. This in turn reduces vehicle weight which can promote longer range electric vehicles.”

David and I went through a dozen slides illustrating the importance of validating complex systems of systems. David and I also talked about something I have been seeing on SemiWiki, the automotive supply chain is consolidating.

Many other competitive systems companies have already brought chip design in-house (Apple, Huawei, Google, Amazon, etc…) but for car companies it is more than just being competitive, it is all about safety and liability.

More than 100 people die in car accidents in the United States per day and many more are injured. When autonomous cars crash who will be held liable first? The car companies of course.

One more quote from the press release:

“In all we do at Siemens, our goal is to provide transportation companies and
suppliers the most comprehensive digital twin solutions, from the design and
development of semiconductors, to advanced manufacturing and deployment of vehicles and services within cities,” said Tony Hemmelgarn, president and CEO at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “Siemens believes collaboration with Arm is a win for the entire industry. Carmakers, their suppliers, and IC design companies all can benefit from the collaboration, new methodologies and insight now sparking new innovations.”

From the Arm 2020 Predictions Report:

Robots and Autonomous Vehicles Most Eagerly Awaited Future Tech

“In 2020, 5G will open up new levels of automotive connectivity enabling
carmakers to explore new infotainment experiences for passengers, including multimedia streaming and more responsive navigation. It’ll also open up benefits in vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications, with potentially life-saving features such as detailed dashboard alerts that warn of unseen dangers ahead.”

Bottom line: Automotive companies MUST have complete PAVE360 control over their silicon in order to develop and validate better chips for the many autonomous car systems to insure safety and contain liability, absolutely.

January 6, 2020July 6, 2020

China in 2020: Theme parks, healthier eating, and the rise of the new Chinese consumer

China in 2020: Theme parks, healthier eating, and the rise of the new Chinese consumer
by Gordon Orr on 01-06-2020 at 6:00 am
Categories: China

This is the second of a five part series

Consumer retail spending in the first 10 months of 2019 rose 8 percent year on year, ahead of income growth of roughly 6 percent. Over 10 million new jobs were created. With moderate house price growth and a positive year in domestic stock markets over the last year, the wealth impact on consumer confidence remained positive. More and more consumer purchases are now financed through installment payment schemes, through credit cards and bank debt (now well over US$ 1 trillion).

The average Chinese consumer is not yet over-leveraged (total household debt stands at only 60 percent of GDP), but the 20-30 age group who borrow most enthusiastically are getting there, pulling forward consumption from future years. These younger age groups also sustain higher current spending by not entering the property ownership market. For many, property prices are now so high it is simply not possible until much later in life. Many realize that renting is a better economic plan. A recent JLL report showed the average price of renting in top Chinese cities was less than half the average mortgage payment. At the individual city level, these trends could finally trigger a material downward adjustment of as much as 30 percent in specific city property prices in 2020.

Multiple consumer sectors suffered significant demand weakness, most notably the automotive sector and smartphones, where a 2020 rebound is unlikely. Yet many service sectors are thriving. Private education providers with quality facilities and faculty are one example, especially those with internationally focused curricula. I recently visited the brand new Whittle School in Shenzhen. With its world class facilities, it will attract students who would otherwise have commuted to schools in Hong Kong. Second tier cities, such as Suzhou, are showing that they can support multiple international schools targeted at mainland students, with Perse School from Cambridge, England adding to those present. Lego announced that it is building the world’s largest Legoland theme park in Shanghai at the cost of over US$625 million, locating it alongside Disneyland Shanghai, creating an international theme park cluster. And it has plans for many more.

Healthier eating

China’s endless food health and safety scandals along with a growing awareness of personal health (supporting the boom in gyms in China) has led many middle-class Chinese to embrace healthier eating choices. Restaurants are adding more vegetarian options, and plant-protein based meat replacements are gaining traction. In China, which consumes more than 50 percent of pork produced globally and has seen pork prices rise over 100 percent due to disease in the pig population, the need is for pork alternatives, rather than the focus in the US on beef substitutes. As a result, Asian companies such as Green Common from Hong Kong have taken the lead in meeting this demand.

The government is getting more involved, requiring manufacturers to provide additional labeling information. In 2020, the government will require that labels on foods show their glycemic index, a rating of how the carbohydrates impact blood glucose levels. The government is acting in an attempt to impact the explosion in diabetes and obesity across China. If the experience of launching this index in Australia provides guidance, food manufacturers will reformulate their products to reduce their GI rating and will market aggressively on the back of having done so, leading to a boom in consumer demand for lower GI products.

With China’s food delivery services providing more than 40 million meal deliveries a day and still growing 35 percent year on year, Meituan and Ele.me have a key role to play in shaping middle class food consumption in China. To meet this demand, they will be promoting healthier options and providing more information to consumers on their choices, whether it is lunch delivered to the office or dinner to the home.

Social Credit System not a big deal for individuals – yet

Government initiatives to create social credit systems attracted a lot of international attention earlier in 2019, which has since died down. In part this was because the system was neither as new nor as all-encompassing as initially described, and in part because Chinese citizens are currently mellow about the entire scheme. Data gathered in the system comes almost entirely from existing databases compiled by many agencies covering financial matters, Party membership, regulatory and legal compliance. As much as 75 percent of this data was already publicly available, perhaps just not online. For many citizens the question was more “what has changed?” Calling out individuals who fail to pay their debts on a public blacklist, making you aware that someone you might be about to do business with has defaulted in the past, seems like a good thing. As with any system, there is potential for misuse, blacklists can get too long, and they may not be objectively created. Evidence from a Jiangsu pilot shows that if government gets too heavy handed, citizens successfully push back.

And of course, there is a part of the social credit system that evaluates and black lists government departments, with more than 20 county level governments already having been blacklisted as “dishonest”.