editor's blog
Subscribe Now

14 nm Waking Up

Even as we talk about the Common Platform Alliance’s 14-nm plans, others are also out there putting 14 nm into play. In March, imec announced delivery of what they claim to be the industry’s first process development kit (PDK) for 14 nm. Synopsys announced TCAD models for 14 nm about a week later.

These are actually rather different beasts; the imec delivery suggests the process is ready for circuits, whereas TCAD models would suggest the process is ready for development, with circuits to follow. There’s one obvious company that’s probably doing 14-nm circuit design now, but it’s a bit early for most others.

You can find more on imec’s announcement here and Synopsys’s announcement here.

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Apr 24, 2026
A thought experiment in curiosity, confusion, and cosmic consequences....

featured paper

Quickly and accurately identify inter-domain leakage issues in IC designs

Sponsored by Siemens Digital Industries Software

Power domain leakage is a major IC reliability issue, often missed by traditional tools. This white paper describes challenges of identifying leakage, types of false results, and presents Siemens EDA’s Insight Analyzer. The tool proactively finds true leakage paths, filters out false positives, and helps circuit designers quickly fix risks—enabling more robust, reliable chip designs. With detailed, context-aware analysis, designers save time and improve silicon quality.

Click to read more

featured chalk talk

GaN for Humanoid Robots
Sponsored by Mouser Electronics and Infineon
In this episode of Chalk Talk, Eric Persson and Amelia Dalton explore why power is the key driver for efficient and reliable robot movements and how GaN technologies can help motor control solutions be more compact, integrated and efficient. They also investigate the role of field-oriented control in humanoid robotic applications and why the choice of a GaN power transistor can make all the difference in your next humanoid robot project!
Apr 20, 2026
10,166 views