1,363 research outputs found
US Microelectronics Packaging Ecosystem: Challenges and Opportunities
The semiconductor industry is experiencing a significant shift from
traditional methods of shrinking devices and reducing costs. Chip designers
actively seek new technological solutions to enhance cost-effectiveness while
incorporating more features into the silicon footprint. One promising approach
is Heterogeneous Integration (HI), which involves advanced packaging techniques
to integrate independently designed and manufactured components using the most
suitable process technology. However, adopting HI introduces design and
security challenges. To enable HI, research and development of advanced
packaging is crucial. The existing research raises the possible security
threats in the advanced packaging supply chain, as most of the Outsourced
Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facilities/vendors are offshore. To deal
with the increasing demand for semiconductors and to ensure a secure
semiconductor supply chain, there are sizable efforts from the United States
(US) government to bring semiconductor fabrication facilities onshore. However,
the US-based advanced packaging capabilities must also be ramped up to fully
realize the vision of establishing a secure, efficient, resilient semiconductor
supply chain. Our effort was motivated to identify the possible bottlenecks and
weak links in the advanced packaging supply chain based in the US.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure
Energy challenges for ICT
The energy consumption from the expanding use of information and communications technology (ICT) is unsustainable with present drivers, and it will impact heavily on the future climate change. However, ICT devices have the potential to contribute signi - cantly to the reduction of CO2 emission and enhance resource e ciency in other sectors, e.g., transportation (through intelligent transportation and advanced driver assistance systems and self-driving vehicles), heating (through smart building control), and manu- facturing (through digital automation based on smart autonomous sensors). To address the energy sustainability of ICT and capture the full potential of ICT in resource e - ciency, a multidisciplinary ICT-energy community needs to be brought together cover- ing devices, microarchitectures, ultra large-scale integration (ULSI), high-performance computing (HPC), energy harvesting, energy storage, system design, embedded sys- tems, e cient electronics, static analysis, and computation. In this chapter, we introduce challenges and opportunities in this emerging eld and a common framework to strive towards energy-sustainable ICT
Two- and Three-dimensional High Performance, Patterned Overlay Multi-chip Module Technology
A two- and three-dimensional multi-chip module technology was developed in response to the continuum in demand for increased performance in electronic systems, as well as the desire to reduce the size, weight, and power of space systems. Though developed to satisfy the needs of military programs, such as the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, the technology, referred to as High Density Interconnect, can also be advantageously exploited for a wide variety of commercial applications, ranging from computer workstations to instrumentation and microwave telecommunications. The robustness of the technology, as well as its high performance, make this generality in application possible. More encouraging is the possibility of this technology for achieving low cost through high volume usage
F1/10: An Open-Source Autonomous Cyber-Physical Platform
In 2005 DARPA labeled the realization of viable autonomous vehicles (AVs) a
grand challenge; a short time later the idea became a moonshot that could
change the automotive industry. Today, the question of safety stands between
reality and solved. Given the right platform the CPS community is poised to
offer unique insights. However, testing the limits of safety and performance on
real vehicles is costly and hazardous. The use of such vehicles is also outside
the reach of most researchers and students. In this paper, we present F1/10: an
open-source, affordable, and high-performance 1/10 scale autonomous vehicle
testbed. The F1/10 testbed carries a full suite of sensors, perception,
planning, control, and networking software stacks that are similar to full
scale solutions. We demonstrate key examples of the research enabled by the
F1/10 testbed, and how the platform can be used to augment research and
education in autonomous systems, making autonomy more accessible
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ENABLING IOT AUTHENTICATION, PRIVACY AND SECURITY VIA BLOCKCHAIN
Although low-power and Internet-connected gadgets and sensors are increasingly integrated into our lives, the optimal design of these systems remains an issue. In particular, authentication, privacy, security, and performance are critical success factors. Furthermore, with emerging research areas such as autonomous cars, advanced manufacturing, smart cities, and building, usage of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices is expected to skyrocket. A single compromised node can be turned into a malicious one that brings down whole systems or causes disasters in safety-critical applications. This dissertation addresses the critical problems of (i) device management, (ii) data management, and (iii) service management in IoT systems. In particular, we propose an integrated platform solution for IoT device authentication, data privacy, and service security via blockchain-based smart contracts. We ensure IoT device authentication by blockchain-based IC traceability system, from its fabrication to its end-of-life, allowing both the supplier and a potential customer to verify an IC’s provenance. Results show that our proposed consortium blockchain framework implementation in Hyperledger Fabric for IC traceability achieves a throughput of 35 transactions per second (tps). To corroborate the blockchain information, we authenticate the IC securely and uniquely with an embedded Physically Unclonable Function (PUF). For reliable Weak PUF-based authentication, our proposed accelerated aging technique reduces the cumulative burn-in cost by ∼ 56%. We also propose a blockchain-based solution to integrate the privacy of data generated from the IoT devices by giving users control of their privacy. The smart contract controlled trust-base ensures that the users have private access to their IoT devices and data. We then propose a remote configuration of IC features via smart contracts, where an IC can be programmed repeatedly and securely. This programmability will enable users to upgrade IC features or rent upgraded IC features for a fixed period after users have purchased the IC. We tailor the hardware to meet the blockchain performance. Our on-die hardware module design enforces the hardware configuration’s secure execution and uses only 2,844 slices in the Xilinx Zedboard Zynq Evaluation board. The blockchain framework facilitates decentralized IoT, where interacting devices are empowered to execute digital contracts autonomously
Panel: Looking Backwards and Forwards
Ten years ago, at 90 nanometers, EDA was challenged and deemed inadequate in dealing with increasing complexity, power consumption, and sub-wavelength lithography, thus harming the progress of mobile phones. Today, at 10 nanometers, integration capacity has increased by two orders of magnitude, power consumption has been successfully "tamed", and 193 nanometer immersion lithography is still relied upon. Also thanks to EDA, tools, methodologies, and flows that were originally devised for design enablement for the emerging technology nodes, have been successfully redeployed at the established technology nodes, where they represent a critical design differentiation factor. However, the battleground is changing again: after the billions of phones, trillions of "things" lie ahead. Moving forward, emerging and established technology nodes, digital and analog, hardware and software will be equally critical. What is EDA doing and, more important, what should EDA do - and is not doing - in order for the next decade to be as great as the past one? This panel session, moderated by EPFL Professor Giovanni De Micheli, gathers academia, semiconductor, and EDA industry to discuss the challenges and requirements of the new era
Integrated Circuits and Systems for Smart Sensory Applications
Connected intelligent sensing reshapes our society by empowering people with increasing new ways of mutual interactions. As integration technologies keep their scaling roadmap, the horizon of sensory applications is rapidly widening, thanks to myriad light-weight low-power or, in same cases even self-powered, smart devices with high-connectivity capabilities. CMOS integrated circuits technology is the best candidate to supply the required smartness and to pioneer these emerging sensory systems. As a result, new challenges are arising around the design of these integrated circuits and systems for sensory applications in terms of low-power edge computing, power management strategies, low-range wireless communications, integration with sensing devices. In this Special Issue recent advances in application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) and systems for smart sensory applications in the following five emerging topics: (I) dedicated short-range communications transceivers; (II) digital smart sensors, (III) implantable neural interfaces, (IV) Power Management Strategies in wireless sensor nodes and (V) neuromorphic hardware
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