Tekmos' Blog

There are many technology nodes available today, ranging from the most advanced 16 nm up through 1 u. So which one should you use for your ASIC? The answer depends on a combination of circuit size, speed requirements, and production volumes.

The biggest downside for the advanced technology nodes is the cost of the masks necessary to fabricate the wafers. The mask cost tends to double for each successive technology node, and is in the millions of dollars for the most advanced nodes. The manufacturing cycle is also longer for the more advanced nodes.

The advanced nodes offer greater circuit density, with the density roughly doubling for each node. This reduces the manufacturing costs, but are the savings worth the extra NRE charges?

And there is the issue of circuit speed. A DDR4 interface needs at least 65 nm for implementation. A PCIe G3 needs 28 nm. And a mixed signal part can be successfully implemented at 180nm or less. The application sets a lower limit on the technology node.

So how do you determine the optimum node? First, let the speed set the lower limit. And trade off the manufacturing cost versus the NRE cost for your anticipated volume. As a rough rule of thumb, the manufacturing savings should pay for the increase in NRE charges within 6 months.

Tekmos has the unique distinction of having Eagle Scouts and family members of Eagle Scouts among its ranks, including the founder and president, Lynn Reed. Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scout program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

Eagle Scout Tekmos Team Members include Vema, Will, Clay, Alan, Adrian and Vishnu, along with Lynn Reed. Vema says "Scouting was a good time to practice leadership. As a Scout I found through camping in cold, rainy weather I had to get out of my comfort zone. All of my experiences in Scouts prepared me for real life." When Will was asked about his experiences he stated, "I learned about the world, how to organize, about fundraising, how to get along with others, and being an Eagle Scout influenced who I am today as well as got me this job."

Clay, a junior in college who has worked several summers at Tekmos says, "Scouts helped me gain friendships I can count on and made me more aware of putting others needs before mine." Alan works full time at Tekmos now, but worked summers and breaks while in school. "I learned a sense of leadership and management particularly creating my Eagle Scout project where one has to plan everything in advance and then be completely removed from the equation so that the project can be implemented. It was my first experience with managing and leadership from afar."

Adrian, the testing floor manager, says of his Scout experiences, "Scouting has been a good way of life. It has provided me with the tools for leadership to take on any obstacle and be successful." Adrian earned all 121 merit badges in 2007, the first to earn that distinction in Central Texas. He held that position for close to 10 years. Vishnu, a recent graduate from college, will be leaving to join the military. "Scouts gave me the confidence to get up in front of people, give orders, and direct. I also learned to accept when I was wrong and take advice."

Other Tekmos Team members associated with Boy Scouts are Carole Reed, who serves as the Capitol Area Council Advancement Chair for the greater Austin area. She began volunteering when her sons were in Cub Scouts and finds it rewarding to watch the young boys grow to such fine young men from their scouting experiencing.

There are so many aspects of IoT (Internet of Things), that one can hardly list all the topics and issues. The number of IoT conferences these days is so large that one could just about go to one every week. Tekmos decided that one conference we really wanted to take in this year was the Internet of Things Developers Conference held May 25 and May 26 in Santa Clara, California.

The Unify Program at Tekmos focuses on the ability to unify many chips into a single package. Unify is a methodology, a capability, or a usage of technology, to yield several advantages. The users of the Unify Program are most likely to be the developers of IoT. The best place to describe the Unify Program is face to face with the IoT developers.

A short definition of Unify is the combining of chips from different technologies into a single package using a Tekmos ASIC as the base. It combines sophisticated cutting edge, off-the-shelf, chips that are inexpensive because of their volume, with added circuitry along with a Tekmos ASIC. the Tekmos chip performs like a silicon PCB. By implementing this as the Tekmos chip base with other die stacked above it, issues of mismatch pinouts between the standard parts are solved. This stack of die is in a single package. The small size of the resultant "System in a Package" (SIP) can be important for many IoT products. (Think wearables, such as fitness monitors.)

Other real advantages are cost and time to market. For example, a design with Flash memory and a microcontroller could use highly sophisticated ICs, which are already developed, mounted on a relatively inexpensive customized ASIC built with an older, less expensive technology. A common theme here is only pay for the technology you need in the parts of your system that require it. A high end processor can be mounted on a slower, less expensive technology base. The processor is inexpensive even though it uses cutting edge technology because its volume in the general market is high. This IC is combined with a specialized base ASIC that makes the design very hard to copy. Since 90% of the design implementation as utilizes commercially available parts it so far less risky than building a large expensive complex chip from scratch.

As expected, there were a number of conversations with developers that need to have small form factor and low power product designs. We are excited about the future for offering these benefits to many customers.

On the second week of May, Lynn Reed and Bob Abrams went to the HiTEC Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. HiTec is dedicated to high temperature electronics. While there are many applications that require electronics to work at high temperatures, the largest commercial usage has been in the oil industry. Oil exploration is a very expensive endeavor. Being able to put electronics deep underground is necessary in order to determine what is going on a couple miles down where it is quite hot, perhaps 200ºC to 300ºC. The lifetime of electronics can be quite short under these harsh conditions. Tekmos has introduced several state of the art products that are rated at 250ºC with proven operation to over 300ºC (570ºF).

There are applications that also require high temperatures, such as geothermal. Generally, designers make trade-offs between the highest operating temperature and cost. Silicon based parts seem to offer the best trade-off for oil exploration applications. The Tekmos approach can offer the best trade-off because it is silicon based and at the high end of temperatures which can be achieved with silicon.

Unfortunately, oil exploration is in quite a slump because of the lower price of oil. The attendance at the conference was down significantly from prior years due to current economic conditions. The conference was still successful because it is the quality of the contacts made that is important, not the quantity.

When we travel on business, we try to take a little time to do something that is related to the place we are visiting. Not having much free time on this trip, our outing was limited to a stroll and dinner in Old Albuquerque. It is an interesting area with a number of quaint shops and restaurants. Before dinner, we took in a local group playing by the gazebo in the town square.

The crowd seemed to be mostly local people enjoying the music, inspiring some of them to dance. After a great Mexican dinner, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the next day, having enjoyed some of the local talent and a chance to get away for a few hours.