September 16, 2014, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, San Jose, CA—Min Gyu Kim from Broadcom described their work in designing a high-dynamic range with low noise and distortion headphone driver. Among the other design constraints, they also had to make the part run on very low power to address the needs of portable device users for…
September 15, 2014, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, San Jose, CA—A team from Stanford EE and CS departments is working out the kinks in Carbon Nanotube (CNT) designs. Their efforts have resulted in the demonstration of a high-energy efficiency computer. The projected values for CNTs are due to their superior electro-static parameters versus Si, and high…
September 15, 2014, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, San Jose, CA—Tsuenobu Kimoto talked about the prospects for SiC ICs. The material is interesting for its inherent characteristics and is suitable for ICs operating at high temperatures and radiation-hard environments. The evolution from discrete power devices to ICs will require efforts to overcome the technology challenges. Silicon…
September 16, 2014, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, San Jose, CA—Tom Lee from Stanford talked about the events and efforts in making the first transatlantic telegraph cable and the resulting birth of electrical engineering. The disastrous beginnings would not have led anyone to think that electrical engineers to be capable of creating miracles. Today, we think…
September 16, 2014, Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, San Jose, CA—Jan Westra from Broadcom described their efforts in making a multi-channel 10Gbase-T chip. The alternative of copper over short distances can easily supplement the optical fiber for the rest of the 10G Ethernet network in the datacenter. One problem with copper is that the wire bundles…
September 23, 2013, CICC, San Jose, CA—Greg Yeric from ARM talked about the conjunction of design and technology in the sub-20 nm nodes and the need to use end product metrics as a part of the technology choice. Technology scaling has been going on for a long time, and the Moore and Denard scaling tricks…
September 20, 2011, CICC, San Jose, CA—A panel moderated by Rao Tummala from Georgia Tech considered the issue of MCMs (multi-chip-modules) possibly delaying 3-D IC developments. Heterogeneous integration techniques of multiple ICs like SIP, wire-bonded stacked die, and silicon carriers offer an alternative to 3-D ICs with TSVs. Tummala noted that MCM technology is over…