Automotive electronics, with the Holy Grail being fully autonomous vehicles, is currently being touted as one of the biggest growth drivers for the semiconductor industry. So much so, that every event I’ve attended so far this year has featured sessions, presentations, keynotes, and panel discussions espousing the benefits of autonomous vehicles, the technologies that have been developed to enab... »
Xperi is a new entity with a complicated back-story, but a pretty cool vision for its future. First, there was Tessera, well-known throughout the advanced packaging sector of the semiconductor industry as an IP-based technology company focused on chip packaging and interconnects that historically licensed its technology know-how and patents. In 2003, the company formed a new parent company –... »
Generally, I avoid reading other journalists’ coverage of events I’ve attended until I’ve had a chance to finish my own coverage. But there it was in my inbox in a recent edition of Semiconductor Packaging News: “Five Takeaways from Semicon” by Semi Engineering’s Mark LePedus. I couldn’t resist. I had to click. I must admit, Mark is more of a hardcore technology journalist than I am,... »
In the first part of this series, I covered the perspectives of dimensional scaling vs. heterogeneous integration based on discussions during SEMICON West 2017. For part two, I spoke with equipment and material suppliers who serve either (or in some cases, both) the front- and back-ends of the semiconductor manufacturing industry, to round out the picture of how the industry-wide shift in focus fr... »
Once again this year, the industry came out in full force to honor excellence in heterogeneous integration at the 2017 3D InCites Awards Ceremony and Cocktail Reception to benefit KidSizeCures for childhood cancer. After a brief ceremony during which we presented 11 awards in 10 categories (find out who won here), guests enjoyed good food, drinks, and conversation, as well as some fun activities, ... »
Heterogeneous Integration Versus Dimensional Scaling; One Year In (Part 2)At SEMICON West 2016, the big story was the end of the ITRS Roadmap for dimensional scaling according to Moore’s Law and the birth of the Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap (HIR). There were many reasons for this: the cost of continued scaling vs. the reduced performance benefits, the advantages of being able to heterogeneo... »
The 2017 3D InCites Awards program has turned out to be the most exciting yet! We had as many as seven nominees in some fields (supplier of the year), and tallied just over 17,529 votes in total! We also saw a considerable increase in nominees using social media to promote their participation in this year’s event. As heterogeneous integration, fueled by advanced packaging and 3D integration, mov... »
The 54th Design Automation Conference (DAC 54) at the Austin Convention Center was very different, compared to the last several years’ events. Walking the exhibition floor, listening to keynotes, SKY talks and CEO interviews I got the following key impressions: While still representing a big part of the audience, the grey-haired men (like myself) were less dominant this year. Many younger people... »
For several years now, Herb Reiter, eda2asic, and John Ferguson, Mentor Graphics, have been evangelizing about the necessity of assembly design kits (ADK), similar to the process design kits (PDKs) for chip designers, to help drive ecosystem capabilities for what is collectively now being called high density advanced packaging (HDAP), comprising 2.5D IC, 3D IC and high density fan-out wafer... »
Let’s start with the indoor rainstorm. I arrived at the Swan and Dolphin in Orlando just in time for the fan-out plenary session of ECTC 2017, so tossed my stuff in my room and headed on in (wearing jeans, no less!) You can read about that here. Afterward, I had a bite to eat with industry colleagues. Back in my room at 11:15 to call it a night, only to find it raining ON my bed thanks to a leak... »
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