SYSTEMS DESIGN ASICS
Demand for wireless
communication, between different
road users and between vehicles and
the road is also increasing.
All in all, these applications will
make the automotive market one of
the key drivers of ASIC technology in
coming years.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is now being used
in various products, such as digital
home assistants, smartphones and
robot vacuum cleaners.
It is also set to play an even
greater role in the automated
processing of video data in real time,
for example in the field of security
monitoring. These systems usually
only have a limited power supply and
are not allowed to get too hot as they
are kept in encapsulated housing. As
a result, efficiency (i.e. processing
power per mW) plays a significant
role here – giving ASICs a significant
market opportunity.
The Internet of Things has been
identified as a growth driver and today
there is a clear trend, where more
and more devices are being upgraded
using smart electronics and connected
in networks using either wired or
wireless technology. Low power is
a particularly important issue here.
Thanks to the integration of an RF and
digital part on an ASIC, highly efficient
IoT implementations are now possible.
In the field of production
automation, a quiet revolution has
taken place. Industry 4.0 is based on
the digitalisation of production. This
field is diverse and offers a wide range
of ASIC applications such as PLC
control systems, encoders and servos
as well as human-machine interfaces.
Alongside new markets, ASIC
technology is also being driven by
the broad selection of semiconductor
processes that are now available. It
does not make sense to select the
latest technology for all products.
Instead, it is important to tailor the
process to the application.
If a customer wants a purely digital
ASIC with several million logic gates
and fast interfaces such as DDR5, a
7nm ASIC is likely be a good choice.
For the above-mentioned applications,
however, other technology drivers are
often more important. If a customer
wants to implement a flash memory
on the ASIC, for example, it generally
makes sense to choose “older”
technologies up to approx. 40nm, as
flash is currently only available for
these.
Furthermore, the integration of the
digital part, the analogue part and
the RF part is becoming increasingly
important. This also has a major
influence on the selected technology.
Today, foundries offer RF and mixedsignal
extensions for their CMOS
processes, which can be used to
implement special semiconductor
structures and passive components
for RF and analogue applications.
RF and analogue circuits do not
necessarily benefit from minimum
transistor geometries. As a result,
larger CMOS process nodes of 180nm
to 40nm are generally chosen for
these kinds of applications.
Also, an ASIC does not need to be
developed completely from scratch.
The market for IP blocks is very
extensive today and an ASIC user
can purchase numerous standard
functionalities as intellectual property
(IP) and then focus exclusively on
developing their own “user logic”.
The use of IP ultimately saves
development costs and time and
reduces the design risk.
ASICs are considered a benefit
for applications that require a high
integration density. The widest range
of functions (digital, analogue, RF) can
be implemented on a single ASIC. This
can reduce the bill of materials and
ASICs always have lower unit costs
compared with field-programmable
gate arrays (FPGAs). The user naturally
pays for this in the form of increased
development effort and costs.
Developing a ASIC therefore makes
sense for larger volumes, where the
savings in unit price compensate for
the initial development costs.
However, some customers choose
ASIC for entirely different reasons.
User-specific functionality can be
implemented by definition in an
ASIC. These may be functions that
are not available in a certain form
on the market or which enhance
the unique selling points (USPs)
of an in-house product. An ASIC
can therefore contribute towards
clearly differentiating a product from
competitors.
The use of an ASIC in their product
also offers customers a certain degree
of security that their product cannot
be easily copied. Since ASICs are
customer specific by definition, they
cannot be simply purchased on the
open market, which deters potential
copycats.
There is also the option of using
protective measures to prevent an
ASIC from being reverse engineered,
thus making it impossible, or
extremely difficult, to copy the ASIC.
Since product piracy has been on the
rise for years, this is a key factor for
some customers in developing an
ASIC.
Today, ASICs maintain an important
position in the semiconductor market.
Increased development costs do
not inevitably mean that ASIC is
only for the big players. A variety
of semiconductor technologies are
now available which allow affordable
designs.
Furthermore, in recent years, new
markets have been formed which
are predestined for the use of ASIC
components.
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