Re: [SI-LIST] : Some Semiconductors are Unnecessarily Fast

Roy Leventhal ([email protected])
Mon, 12 Jul 1999 17:40:17 -0500

Bob,

It is exactly my contention that increased edge rates as a consequence of
semiconductor die shrinkage, not application need, is the opposite of job
security for SI engineers.

I am certain that semiconductor manufactures are not intentionally making my job
harder.

But, the winners in this game will be a team consisting of semiconductor
manufacturer plus circuit designer who get the neatest, lowest cost widgets to
market fastest and without fuss.

Best Regards,

Roy

Robert Tsai <[email protected]> on 07/12/99 04:24:02 PM

Please respond to [email protected]

Sent by: Robert Tsai <[email protected]>

To: [email protected]
cc: (Roy Leventhal/MW/US/3Com)
Subject: Re: [SI-LIST] : Some Semiconductors are Unnecessarily Fast

Roy Leventhal wrote:

> Several recent threads have commented that few nets on a board used to be a
> signal integrity challenge in the past and now almost all are.
>
> What we are seeing are a number of instances where the semiconductor companies
> are producing parts with edge rates way faster than the clock and application
> calls for. Parts with 500ps rise times or less and clock periods of 100ns or
> more. SI engineers are seeing more demand for their skills what with shrinking
> geometries and lack of (care? concern?) edge rate control on drivers.
>
> But, this is "make work" and is not the road to world class competitiveness
for
> our companies. There are enough real world signal integrity problems for us to
> tackle without any "help" of this sort from the semiconductor manufactures.
>
> Roy Leventhal
>
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Hi Roy,

As many of you already know that the edge rate is directly related to the
channel length of the drivers. When the semiconductor technology shrinks its
feature sizes from 0.5 to 0.35 to 0.18 um the edge rate goes up accordingly.
Unless special designs are implemented to intentionly slow down the edge rate,
the edge rate will keep going up. We are not making everybody's life tough
purposely.

Think positively, this is job security for all of you.

Robert Tsai

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