Getting to Know You: The IoT Theme Song

The vision of the Internet of Things places electronics in all aspects of our lives─from knowing what’s in our refrigerator to life-critical functions such as connected, implantable defibrillators. The potential of autonomous driving places our lives in the hands of sensors, processors and wireless communication that we have to assume collect accurate information, processes that information and reacts in real time. Semico has compiled a list of the top ten elements that must align in order for the IoT to come to fruition. Semico’s report on security started a groundswell of discussion and, more importantly, new solutions from chip vendors.

Semiconductor designers have been engrossed in developing solutions that deliver the right performance at the lowest cost while using the least amount of power. But there is another item to add to the list of essentials for IoT adopton. Making sure your customers know you, or more specifically your product specs, is even more important than ever. In the past five years, packaging has become a critical piece of a successful solution. System in Package, 3D chips, and 3D packaging have all been created to serve one or more angles of the power/performance/cost pyramid. What about the results once the chip is mounted onto a board with all its companion chips? How far should the chip manufacturer go in order to control and guarantee performance and reliability in their chips?

As semiconductor manufacturers reduce power consumption in tradeoffs with performance and cost, the end result is a chip that may function significantly different once it is operating on the board. In the past, testing timing skews just meant getting an accurate measure and making a few adjustments. As Lee Ritchey, Founder and President of Speeding Edge, points out, measuring the differential in timing skews can now be quantified down to a picosecond in both the package and on today’s PCB layout tools. Problems are now popping up in other areas, such as performance anomalies due to the laminate in a PCB in which the glass reinforcement in the resin, depending on the weave, creates different results due to the density of the weave.

“Getting to Know You” is more than a hit song from The King and I. Getting to know your PCB designer, your package designer, and your PCB supplier will result in better-performing products. Does your customer know your chips, and what can impact the performance of those chips once they are designed onto a board? Will a misstep down the line compromise a chip’s performance in a life-critical application? Don’t wait for a major problem to arise! Get to know your PCB designer and material supplier at the Semico Impact Conference, Boards, Chips and Packaging: Designing to Maximize Results. While there, meet Lee Richey, the industry´s guru of high-speed PCB and system design. The creation of the system solution now requires planning chip design with packaging and PCB layout to create the optimal end application. For more information and to register, visit www.Semico.com.