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5 Easy Steps to Calculate ASIC Unit Cost
It happened to all of us. You come to your office one morning and find a note from your manager “what will be the ASIC’s unit cost?” Although an ASIC unit cost has a direct impact on revenues, it is...
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Moisture Sensitivity Level and Popcorn Effect
MSL stands for Moisture Sensitivity Level. It represent the amount of time an IC can be exposed to ambient conditions and still be assembled on a PCB without being damaged. When the antistatic bag is...
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How to Obtain ASIC Turnkey Services from TSMC and GLOBALFOUNDRIES?
Pure-play foundries are offering vanilla flavor services, meaning one can buy only wafers. ASIC design, testing, packaging and supply chain services are not part of their service offering. Large IDM...
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Does size matter? Understanding Wafer Size
Silicon wafers are the most essential element in the realization of ICs. The semiconductor industry had invested heavily to increase the wafer size during the last 30 years, so while foundries used to...
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Copper Wire (Cu) Bonding Reduces Package Cost
Do you know someone that is not eager to reduce their ASIC production costs? I don’t. Some say that redesign changes can lead to significant cost reduction, for instance – using a more advanced...
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Packaging and Delivery Methodology for: wafer, die and ICs
There are many ways to deliver, package and transport silicon products. Here’s a short primer that provides the basic facts regarding how silicon can be packed and delivered to ensure safe...
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QFN Package Overview
QFN package is probably the most successful package type today. Offering low price, excellent performance and small size, it is an ideal package for many applications. QFN (quad-flat no-leads) is a...
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Six ways to improve chip yield rate- before the project starts
Early on in Chip projects, yield is not taken very seriously. The common thinking goes – anyhow there isn’t much to do as this early point of time. However, there are actually several things you can...
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Die Per Wafer Formula and (free) Calculator
Calculating the number of Dies Per Wafer (DPW) is a very simple and straight forward task. It’s actually based on basic high school mathematics which are related to circle area formula, remember Pi?...
View ArticleMy Golden Rule for Chip Production Testing
Chip production testing is probably the most underestimated task by ASIC development engineers. And yet, testing is an essential step with a direct impact on final chip cost. Let’s start with the...
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How to Design and Make a Custom Analog IC in 44 Days
Recently we worked with a customer that had an urgent need to get a custom analog ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) developed in a very short time. The customer needed a completely working...
View ArticleSoC Manufacturing and Test Trends
Technology Trends Process technology is progressing at a very fast pace and 16/14nm FinFET- based SOCs are available from various fabless companies. Significant investments in the development of...
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Rambus is Changing Business Model
After years of legal struggles and law suits fights to defend their patents, Rambus decided to change its business model and enter into the market with its own brand. Founded in 1990, Rambus was born...
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Google Will Design a Mobile Phone CPU
Google is taking the next necessary steps towards the mobile phone market and plans to start developing and producing CPU chips for enabling a complete mobile phone eco system, to be combined with its...
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Freescale to Improve Semiconductor Manufacturing Utilization
Optimal+, a leader in Manufacturing Intelligence solutions, today announced that it was selected by Freescale® Semiconductor to deliver their enterprise software suite to enhance the efficiency of...
View ArticleIC Price Calculator (Free)
The IC Price Calculator is based on a standard price model that consists of all the required steps in IC manufacturing: Wafer Price Assembly/Package Price Test Price Yield The IC Price Calculator...
View ArticleUnderstanding IC Cost
There have been many debates around the final cost of an IC. Over the years the misconception and failure to agree on what the calculated IC cost would be. The reason for this is that ICs are a simple...
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Glassify’s Brewing a Semiconductor Beer Glass
Israeli start-up Glassify joined the IoT revolution and introduces the first beer glass integrating a semiconductor chip. The beer glass allows consumers to connect the glass to the smartphone using...
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Chipmaker Allwinner is Enabling a $79 Laptop
Allwinner Technology, a Chinese fabless semiconductor company that design and manufacture SoC processors announced a new laptop that could cost $79. Since its founding in 2007, Allwinner has released...
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ASIC Model vs. COT Model
Each semiconductor company reaches at some point to the manufacturing dilemma – how to go into production in the cheapest, most efficient and highest quality way? Is it using an external full turnkey...
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