The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast

#706 – Leading Edge Analog with Joren Vaes

Listen Later

Welcome Joren Vaes, design engineer at SOFICS

  • Simulation is critical when designing analog devices based on a PDK from the fab
  • Parasitics are significant, especially with new nodes having upwards of 16 metal layers
  • Chris complained about a class where the professor made them draw planar structures with graph paper with colored pencils
  • Large fabs on leading edge nodes have 1800 page textbook of rules
  • Because the constraints get tighter, that book gets longer for each node
  • 2 nm mass production on finfet currently with TSMC
  • 22 was the last classic cmos
  • Finfet, looks like a devil
  • ‘gate all around’ / nanosheet
  • CFET (complementary field effect transistor) is next
  • Joren really gets Maxwells Equations…as you have to at super high speeds
  • SOFICS are making phy’s / IP blocks
  • Amplifiers that are DC to 50 GHz
  • Making a datasheet for the resulting IP block
  • Joren got his PhD working on millimeter wave applications
  • It’s all just physics
  • Using coils to impedance match between layers
  • Reflecting off of different materials at angles is Snells law (not lorentz equation) and that extends to different materials at different wavelengths
  • Cables are very lossy at 100 GHz…dBs per cm
  • Parasitics impact every part of the design process
  • Wireline community – name for the high speed interfaces, including research in the space
  • Most transistor threshhold voltages that Joren works with are … 750 mV!
  • Voltage dependent drc rules
  • Electromigration – holes in wires from electrons
  • ESD is a big part of the business, and a large source of parasitics
  • New product development for IP blocks
  • Working with customers and Foundry at the 2 nm node
  • Design companies need to be paying 100s of thousands to software providers
  • After, it goes to spice and schedmatic
  • Joren decides whether to jump in on layout
  • LVS – layout vs schematic
  • Parasitic extraction (spice netlist)
  • PDKs define how you can do the layout stage
  • Lower cost tools exist but more expensive tools have tooling that tells you when you’re violating DRC
  • 3 main vendors
    • Cadence
    • Synopsis
    • Siemens (Calibre)
    • Foundries soemtimes only support one tool
    • Doing test wafers  allows testing of structures. They often get MPW at a discount from the fab (since they’re often testing new processes as well)
    • How do they test with packaging options?
      • ‘low speed’ can be die bonded or pcb mounted
      • high speed does on wafer probing (with veeeery expensive probes)
      • Check out Sofics.com for more info on the company. They also have a blog with a great name.
      • Follow or connect with Joren on LinkedIn

        •  

        ...more
        View all episodesView all episodes
        Download on the App Store
        The Amp Hour Electronics PodcastBy The Amp Hour (Chris Gammell and David L Jones)
        • 4.9
        • 4.9
        • 4.9
        • 4.9
        • 4.9

        4.9

        226 ratings

        More shows like The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast

        View all
        The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source by Changelog Media

        The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

        291 Listeners

        Security Now (Audio) by TWiT

        Security Now (Audio)

        2,002 Listeners

        Accidental Tech Podcast by Marco Arment, Casey Liss, John Siracusa

        Accidental Tech Podcast

        2,126 Listeners

        Software Engineering Daily by Software Engineering Daily

        Software Engineering Daily

        624 Listeners

        LINUX Unplugged by Jupiter Broadcasting

        LINUX Unplugged

        266 Listeners

        Risky Business by Patrick Gray

        Risky Business

        374 Listeners

        The Quanta Podcast by Quanta Magazine

        The Quanta Podcast

        523 Listeners

        Embedded by Logical Elegance

        Embedded

        192 Listeners

        Late Night Linux by The Late Night Linux Family

        Late Night Linux

        165 Listeners

        Home Assistant Podcast by HK Media

        Home Assistant Podcast

        70 Listeners

        Darknet Diaries by Jack Rhysider

        Darknet Diaries

        8,000 Listeners

        Physics World Weekly Podcast by Physics World

        Physics World Weekly Podcast

        79 Listeners

        Hackaday Podcast by Hackaday

        Hackaday Podcast

        64 Listeners

        2.5 Admins by The Late Night Linux Family

        2.5 Admins

        99 Listeners

        Oxide and Friends by Oxide Computer Company

        Oxide and Friends

        59 Listeners