Samsung lines up tool providers for finFET tapeouts
14nm finFET test-chip designs are moving through Samsung’s fab as ARM, Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys continue to check their flows on the new process.
Tech Design Forum Briefing
Briefing Authors
Paul Dempsey
Paul Dempsey has been a technology journalist for 20 years. His work has also appeared in EETimes, Red Herring and specialist journals published by the Financial Times.
Luke Collins
Luke Collins is a freelance technology journalist with 22 years’ experience. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of Electronics Times in the UK, and co-founded the IP9x series of conferences.
Chris Edwards
Chris Edwards has spent two decades covering electronics and EDA. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Engineering Times UK and electronics editor of the IET's Engineering & Technology.
DATE conference prepares program for March
In 2013, the Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE) conference returns to Grenoble, France and with focus days on the Internet of Things and the cloud.
3D-IC integration prospects improving, say IEDM researchers
3D-IC integration techniques such as the use of TSVs, die stacking and interposers are unlikely to limit performance, according to research from TSMC and IBM
Process development needs hierarchy, abstraction, says tools CTO
How to save money in process development by moving experiments out of the fab and into the computer.
Altera and ARM unite FPGA and processor debug
Altera has cut a deal with ARM to bring unified debug support to the FPGA fabric and Cortex-A9 processors inside the Cyclone SoC products, using a specialized version of ARM’s DS5 tool.
Intel launches its first microserver SoC
Intel has launched its first server SoC, based on a stripped-down Atom, in a bid to seal its place in microservers before ARM can ready its 64bit architecture for production. But the chip seems more a stake in the ground than the answer for low-power servers.
FD-SOI vs finFETs mulled during IEDM
Can planar devices on fully depleted SOI resist the relentless rise of finFETs as the next device architecture of choice for the semiconductor industry? An evening panel at IEDM explored the trade-offs
Semiconductor roadmap gets fuzzier at IEDM
Semiconductor process options outlined at IEDM by Luc van den Hove of imec as industry faces hard choices and rising costs
Oxygen injection for go-faster 14nm transistors
Mears Technologies and UC Berkeley describe at IEDM 2012 how oxygen in a silicon superlattice could boost performance beyond strained silicon at 14nm.
Germanium finFETs, TFETs and MEMS modelled at IEDM
The modelling track at IEDM 2012 showed how germanium could be used in 14nm finFETs. Other work focused on tunnel FETs and analyzing MEMS using Spice.