Mixed Signal ASIC

Forecast of the ASIC Chip Market

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The importance of the ASIC chip is evident in our daily lives. From the kitchen appliances to transportation, mobile devices, hospital, and medical equipment, ASIC chips are the main components.

Over the years, ASIC chips play an immense role in life. The market demands of consumer electronics and mobile devices are growing and that ASIC chips’ growth is undeniable.

ASIC is small in size but it performs a number of functions in just one tiny black chip. As the years progress, numerous ASIC chips are developed to cater to varying industry needs including the automobile industry.

Today, premium automobile manufacturers, medical and industrial workplaces are using sensor ASIC chips. ASIC and sensor ASIC chips will be highly in demand in the global market due to the surge in adoption in developing countries.

According to Allied Market Research, the ASIC chip market is projected to reach $28.05 billion in 2026. However, the lack of workforce and extra time needed in the production may affect market growth.

The global ASIC market is segmented by region, application, and type. Based on the region, the market is fragmented in Asia & The Pacific, Europe, North America, and LAMEA (Latin America, Middle East, and Africa).

By type, it is classified into Full Custom, Semi-Based Custom, and Programmable Logic Devices. Based on the application, the ASIC market is divided into consumer electronics, telecommunication products, wireless communication, medical instrumentation, aerospace subsystem and sensor, data processing systems.

The high demands of consumer electronics, hybrid cars, and health care monitoring systems will significantly drive the sales and production of ASIC and sensor ASIC chips.

It will be a trend in developed countries like the United States of America. Also, the numerous benefits ASIC chips are other growth factors that lead to increased demands in developing countries in the healthcare, transportation, media, retail, and automotive industries.

 

Top companies in the market

  • Intel Corporation
  • Maxim Integrated Products
  • Analog Devices
  • ON Semiconductor Corporation
  • Qualcomm
  • Texas Instruments
  • Advanced Micro Devices
  • Samsung Electronics
  • Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
  • Bitmain Technologies Holding Company
  • Infineon Technologies AG
  • Xilinx, Inc.
  • Nvidia Corporation

 

ASIC and sensor ASIC market by country or region

  • US
  • Canada
  • North America
  • UK
  • Germany
  • France
  • Russia
  • Italy
  • Spain
  • Rest of Europe
  • Malaysia
  • Singapore
  • India
  • Japan
  • South Korea
  • Rest of Asia & Pacific
  • Brazil
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Argentina
  • The rest of LAMEA

 

ASIC market by application

  • Consumer electronics
  • Data Processing Systems
  • Health and Medical Instrumentation
  • Aerospace and others

It is projected that Asia and the Pacific region will experience the highest CAGR of 8.9% during (2019-2015) and an expected rise of 8.2% of CAGR for Global ASIC Chip market between 2015 – 2019.

The development of Application Specific Integrated Circuits provides numerous benefits including speed and efficiency. ASIC and sensor ASIC chips are also empowering different industries, private and public sectors towards digital transformation.

 

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

System-On-A-Chip

What is VLSI and its relation to ASIC chips

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What are VLSI and its uses?

 

Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) is the process of creating an Integrated Circuit (IC) by incorporating tens of thousands of transistors into one single chip. VLSI reduces the need for more circuits in one system, especially for complex devices. The integration of technology helped reduce the size of electronic devices without affecting efficiency.

 

VLSI technology was developed in the 1970s when cutting edge computer processor microchips were under improvement. Today, it is a widely utilized technology for microchip processors and incorporated circuits (IC). Very

Large Scale Integration was initially designed to support a huge number of transistor entryways on a microchip. These transistors are integrated and implanted inside a microchip, which significantly reduced its size yet still can hold big numbers of transistors.

 

Back in the days of the vacuum tube method, electronic devices were bulky and require more power. And due to the wastage of heat and power, efficiency is decreased. The advancement of technology and electronic devices brought forth the invention of VLSI. The method helped accommodate the growing requirements of complex designs; to fabricate all components onto a single chip.

 

VLSI design flow

There are 3 major stages in the VLSI design process; behavioral, logic circuit, and layout representations.

  • Behavioral representation is the first step. The process involves identifying the functionality of the device and how it is going to communicate with the exterior. A Hardware Description Language (HDL) is used to establish the behavior of the device.
  • Logic circuit representation works by using functional blocks from cell libraries to integrate the behavioral representation of the VLSI design into a logic circuit representation. Once verified, the gate-level netlist is generated to develop the design layout.
  • Layout representation is the final stage which determines the placing and routing of the chips. Once arranged at their best locations, building blocks are then interconnected.

 

Uses in today’s advance word:

  • Computers
  • Commercial electronics
  • Medicine
  • Automobiles
  • Digital signal processing

 

What is ASIC?

 

Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) is designed for one specific application only. It is a microchip designed to one special application like a pocket-sized computer. It is widely used in the design and manufacturing of electronic devices. Some examples of popular ASIC chip include a chip with microprocessor for cellular phones to work, a chip for a satellite, a chip for a talking toy bear, and a chip used for the voice recorder.

 

ASICs can be custom manufactured for specific client applications or pre-manufactured for a special product or application.

 

Types of ASIC chip designs

  • Full custom design
  • Semi-custom design
  • Programmable ASIC

 

Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) and Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)

 

So, VLSI involves the development of ASIC. For specific applications, special chips are designed which is also called Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). These specialized chips changed the way electronic devices are designed and manufactured.

 

This method is expensive, but several industries are using this technology because this can be reconfigured if needed. Using ASIC, you can map any design, develop a design that can be modified multiple times.

 

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

voltage regulator

What is a Voltage Regulator and How Does it Work

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A voltage regulator is a device that maintains the voltage of a power source within prescribed limits. This useful device keeps the output voltage at the same level even when loading conditions or input voltage changes. The voltage regulator comes in two types: linear and switching.

 

Linear Voltage and Switching Regulator Explained

A linear regulator uses an active pass device called bipolar junction transistor (BJT) or MOSFET) run by a high-gain differential amplifier. It basically differentiates the output voltage with a specific voltage then adjusts the pass device to keep the output voltage within the standard range.

On the other hand, a switching regulator works by converting the dc input voltage into different voltage using a switch. The dc output is then fed back to the circuit controller to regulate the transfer and keep the output voltage constant.

 

Switching Regulator Topologies

Topology is the study of geometric properties and spatial relations in Mathematics. Basically, topology is the way in which elements are arranged.

There are 3 main switching regulator topologies: buck (step-down), boost (step-up), and buck-boost which are a combination of both. The rest of the topologies are flyback, SEPIC, Cuk, push-pull, forward, full-bridge, and half-bridge.

 

In what way switching frequency impacts regulator designs

Switching frequency can affect the efficiency and performance of regulator designs. Higher switching frequency means greater noise, but this can be addressed by adding a low-pass filter.

However, adjusting the frequency depends on each system’s requirements. Also, higher switching frequency means reduced board space; the voltage regulator can use smaller capacitors and inductors.

 

What are Switching Losses?

Switching losses happen when the power switch changes from the ON state and OFF state and vice versa. Also, power or switching losses occur because there are more transitions per second when changing to higher frequencies. To sum it up, losses are associated with the activity of the power switch.

 

Linear Regulators vs. Switching Regulators

Linear regulator is the simplest technique to regulate the output voltage from the power source. It only requires a minimum amount of dropout voltage to work. Linear regulators are only suitable for low powered devices. It may be less complicated and cheap, but it is less efficient.

Switching regulators, on the other hand, are highly efficient and reliable. However, switching regulators emit loud squeal noise. Basically, switching regulators can drive higher current loads compared to linear regulators.

 

Switching Regulator Output Method Explained

The output voltage is controlled at a fixed limit by using three control methods: voltage mode control, current-mode control, and hysteresis (ripple) control.

What are the design specifications for voltage regulator IC?

Depending on the application, design specifications vary. But the primary specifications are input voltage, output voltage, and output current.

Other parameters that are important include output noise, load transient response, output ripple voltage, and efficiency. And for linear regulators, the important specifications are dropout voltage, output noise, and power supply rejection ratio or PSRR.

 

Additional Features for Voltage Regulator IC

Some regulators feature output voltage tracking which output voltage from one power source tracks the output of another power supply.

 

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

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A Brief History of The System-On-A-Chip

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Have you ever wondered where the idea of the system-on-a-chip (SoC) came from? Gadgets nowadays are getting more advanced and most of them are based on SoCs. Basically, these components can be a bit hard to define.

 

 

Where SoCs Are Commonly Used

 

You will usually find SoCs in your smartphone, smart TV, tablet, and voice assistant. This includes your computer where you can see it in the hard drive, graphics cards, and network cards. The main processor chip, in many cases, an SoC with a number of CPU cores, particularly with ultra-mobile laptops. You will also find an integrated graphics processing unit in such components.

 

Other cheap single board computers are also available, including the Beagle Bone and the Raspberry Pi, most are based around a system-on-a-chip. You can only see them in devices that need SoCs.

 

 

Its Brief History

 

You may not have much information regarding the history of SoCs because most of the early developments were done in the development and research laboratories of private companies. Thus, the information has not become public because of intellectual property laws.

 

Companies developing the technology at that time called system-on-a-chip were at the cutting edge of the telecommunications industry. Moreover, these companies have been developing silicon for other companies and not for sale to design engineers.

 

Thus, the chips they have produced were using obscure codenames and part numbers not listed in catalogs that should be readily available for the public.

 

 

The SoCs in the 1970s

 

A system-on-a-chip technology was intended to provide miniaturization. It dates back to the early 1970s in the new era of the digital watch when the first LED wristwatch was announced. It took 44 logic ICs to be reduced into one chip. Some of the LED driving circuitry in that wristwatch was actually too large so that was not actually a complete system.

 

 

Development of the First SoCs in the 1980s to the 1990s

 

It was in the 1980s when the revolution of personal computing took off that caused the major developments in system-on-a-chip technology. In 1991, this technology continued to flourish with the release of the AMD286ZX/LX family of SoCs.

 

Then, the boom in the cellular phone industry has made it possible for the development of SoCs in the 1990s. At the same time, many smaller chips begin to do different peripheral functions, including audio, battery charging, keyboard, and LCD displays, among others.

 

In the late 1990s, ARM Holdings began to license its fabless processor designs to other manufacturers. The future of ARM and the mobile telecoms market is greatly accredited to the evolution of its reduced-instruction-set (RISC) CPU.

 

It was very powerful and consumes less power than its competitors. It has become ideal for the use of embedded systems as can be seen in the disk drive SoC.

 

  • The early 2000s featured cheaper and smaller mobile phones
  • In 2001, it was the release of the iPod that was based on the twin-core ARM SoC
  • The mid-2000s was the expansion of the market in Asia
  • The first iPhone was launched in 2007 that featured an SoC containing an ARM core and GPU

 

Today, the mobile phone industry has been pushing the limits of the system-on-a-chip. In fact, the SoCs gained several ARM cores, GPU cores, and RAM, as well as multimedia processing features.

 

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system on a chip

How Do Integrated Circuits Work

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The invention of the integrated circuit (IC) was in 1958, compressing more power into lesser space. A very effective alternative to the buzzing vacuum tubes thousands of times less powerful than the modern laptop and 100 times smaller than the ENIAC in the 1940s.

 

 

What Is An Integrated Circuit?

 

Integrated circuits are a combination of diodes, microprocessors, and transistors in a minimized form on a wafer made of silicon. Each of these components has a specific function. These can perform calculations and multiple tasks when combined with each other.

 

  • Diodes – These are electronic devices working to control the flow of current in the circuit. Diodes also control the direction of the current in which they only allow the current to flow in certain paths.
  • Transistors – These components are used to store voltages or circuit stabilizer. They can be utilized to amplify the given signal and used as switches working in digital circuits. They can allow a certain amount of voltage into the circuit with the use of a gate to open at a particular voltage.
  • Microprocessors – These components are the most important part of the integrated circuit. This is intended to provide memory to the system. Likewise, it gives memory to perform calculations and follow a certain protocol or logic. This tells the microprocessor to process the data and electricity within the system. So it becomes the operating system of an integrated circuit, allowing the components to interact with one another.

 

Integrated circuits are found in almost every electrical appliance nowadays, from television to wristwatch and from PCs to juice makers. The applications are limitless for ICs in which anything can be designed and built with discrete electronic components and put into an integrated circuit.

 

Some examples of ICs are audio amplifiers, logic devices, memory devices, radiofrequency decoders and encoders, and video processors. But computing is among the major applications for ICs. So instead of thousands of transistors in computers in olden times, today’s PCs have only a handful of ICs.

 

 

Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)

 

One of the uses of ICs is called the ASIC chip, which is made to serve a particular purpose, instead of a general-purpose chip. One of the applications of an ASIC is the one that runs in a digital voice recorder.

 

 

Structured ASIC Design

 

ASIC chips are fabricated using metal oxide semiconductor technology or as MOS integrated circuit chips. A new trend in the semiconductor industry is the structured ASIC chip design or the platform ASIC design.

 

 

Full-Custom ASIC

 

Another ASIC design used in the industry is the full-custom ASIC chip design that defines all the photolithographic layers of the device. These are used for both ASIC design and standard product design.

 

The benefits of a full-custom design include reduction of area, improvement of performance, and integration of analog components. However, this will cause increased manufacturing and design time, more complexity in the computer-aided design, and higher skill requirement for the design team.

 

 

Gate Array and Semi-Custom Design

 

Another manufacturing method where diffused layers are predefined and electronic wafers are held in stock before the metallization stage in the fabrication process. The diffused layers consist of transistors and other active devices.

 

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

analog design

Myths To Dispel About Custom Analog ASIC Design

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Designing electronic products such as analog ASIC or custom silicon can be designed according to customer specifications. But there are myths to dispel in accordance with analog design or digital ASIC design. Here are several myths that can be busted with some of the recent changes in the semiconductor industry.

 

 

ASICs Are Expensive To Produce

 

To maximize the utilization of foundries and return on investment, steps are now taken by manufacturers to attract customers. Thus, lowering the cost of engineering.

 

Moreover, the increase in the availability of capacity on the basis of mature process nodes is keeping such costs low. This means that it is more cost-efficient to create custom silicon.

 

 

Making Custom Chips Requires Very High Volumes

 

This is not true because switching to a custom analog design for ASICs can remove the redundancy and will consolidate its functionality. Thus, it generates a significant bill of material savings to easily reach well over 50%. In this case, ASICs can make good business and engineering sense even at low or medium volumes.

 

 

It Is Expensive To Design Custom Silicon

 

There are experienced design houses with existing silicon-proven IP libraries. Therefore, it can leverage and keep costs low. So design houses can deliver a turnkey experience that often is more affordable than expected.

 

 

It Is Time-Consuming To Create Custom Silicon

 

Good design houses can now leverage existing silicon-proven IP libraries. In this sense, it can greatly reduce design time. Therefore, it will have a better design process flow to speed up time-to-market.

 

 

It Requires Hard Work To Engage In Analog/Mixed-Signal

 

Those who develop the mixed-signal or analog design for ASICs are adept at identifying and addressing the implications of layout between analog and digital circuitry. So it requires system-level understanding and experience to determine which design practices would work best.

 

 

You Are At Risk To Go Out Of Business When Working With A Custom Supplier

 

It is not true that you get into supply problems when you are working with major foundries or established design houses. In fact, the risk of supply only happens when using off-the-shelf components from different suppliers.

 

 

It Is Prohibitively Expensive To License IP

 

This is the exact opposite because costs in licensing IP can be minimized. This is made possible because design houses can leverage their own libraries of IP developed in-house, as well as greater buying power. This makes it available to customers at very competitive prices.

 

 

Design Houses Only Help With Hardware

 

Actually, design houses also work with customers to support software development for the complete system, aside from just developing hardware.

 

 

Your Design Partner Dictates What Customers Must Use To Implement

 

Customers are not restricted to a particular manufacturing partner because they can choose who to work with. This is due to the fact that design houses often want to select the best partners.

 

 

 Custom Silicon Only Benefits Very Specific Niche Requirements

 

There are lots of benefits with custom silicon, including improved efficiencies to space savings, IP security, and BOM cost reductions.

 

 

 Customers Are kept In The Dark Because Design Happens In A Black Box

 

Good design houses will work at every step of the way side-by-side with the customer in order to achieve the desired system. The entire process is actually open and transparent, rather than a black-box approach.

 

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

single board computers and system-on-a-chip

System-On-A-Chip And Single Board Computer: Advantages And Disadvantages

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A system-on-a-chip incorporates plenty of system components into a single silicon chip. On the other hand, single board computers are an entire computer built on a single circuit board. It also has a memory, microprocessor, and input-output features needed for a functional computer.

 

Generally, it comprises of a range of peripherals, memory, and an application processor. This is a small chip with all the required circuits and electronic components in a given system, such as a smartphone or PC, on a single integrated circuit.

 

Advantages Of System-on-a-Chip (SoC)

 Size

SoC is basically small and it has some useful features and functions. This makes it more advantageous to consider.

Flexibility

The design of the SoC is built for flexibility, which is quite tough to beat. Its suppleness can be derived from its chip size, form factor, and power.

Cost-Efficient

Video codes from application-specific SoCs can be cost-efficient. This is particularly true with software in terms of effort and time.

High Volume

For high capacity products, SoCs are countless, since it makes it so easy to defend the resources and engineering cost.

 

Disadvantages Of SoC 

 

  1. Time-Consuming
  2. Resource Limitations
  3. Lower Volume

 

 

Advantages Of Single Board Computer (SBC)

 

Easy To Use

When it comes to single-board computers, you can rest assured that they are easy to use.

Verified Hardware

When designing SoC, it is quite expensive to consider pursuing it. In the case of SBC though, you are guaranteed that such a risk can be avoided.

Adaptable

The ability to apply modifications to your board only means that you are just giving for what you need.

Single Source

The bill of materials for a simple SoC can still be worth hundreds of dollars. However, considering SBC deems it informal for logistics.

Time To Market

The design of single board computers is essentially faster compared with that of the SoC.

 

 

Disadvantages Of SBC

 

Price

When it comes to products of high capacity category, it makes it more logical to do your individual design and validate engineering costs.

Flexibility

Doing a system-on-a-chip is more valuable to deliberate as opposed to a system board computer, particularly when you want a lot of customizations.

Knowledge

It will be very worthwhile to spend some time and determination for developing a deep understanding of the invention, when you are planning to use the same SoC for several products, as opposed to SBC.

 

 

Differences Between SoC And SBC

 

System-on-a-chip and Single Board Computers are quite different from each other because the former can be a significant component of the latter. Basically, SoC comprises of different functional units on a single silicon chip. On the other hand, SBC is a complete personal computer on a single printed circuit board, CPU, RAM, and non-volatile memory.

 

Furthermore, SoC is widely used across the embedded industry because of the features, such as the computational quality, low power consumption, and small form factor. SBCs are standard products that can be utilized to advance the results for different industries.

 

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

Mixed Signal ASIC Design

State-Of-The-Art Products That Use Optical Control ASIC

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One of the advantages of using application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs is its low power consumption. Industrial applications of ASICs are now used to achieve that and several other benefits. In the design of an optical control ASIC, for instance, the manufacturer aims to achieve low power, low-cost optical chips for applications that require image sensing capabilities, motion control, and color, light and distance measurement.

 

 

 

Low Power Image Sensor Chips

 

The industry has created a mechanism to develop image sensor chips and ICs for different applications in order to provide low power consumption, fast image updates, and high sensitivity. Each application utilizes minimal image resolution combined with smart software algorithms.

 

The single-chip optical systems are integrated within a range of industrial environments, which includes data communication, detection of motion and luminance, Internet of Things, and object tracking.

 

Engineers are able to integrate and customize optical control ASIC design based on the requirements of the customers. The optimal setup can be determined using on-chip or off-chip components.

 

Such would include the analog amplifiers, digital control communication, and sensor size. This is aimed to minimize the price, power consumption, and size.

 

 

 

Color and Light Measurements

 

The use of optical control ASIC also benefits many applications such as the capability to measure color or light. This can be done with the combination of optical filters on a chip diode and standard CMOS technology. This is beneficial for industrial and process control applications.

 

Other applications include early corrosion detection in gas pipes and steel constructions, eyewear protection, food bacteria, and humidity detection. The welding helmet is an example of efficient technology in preventing eye injuries caused by dangerous radiation from the welding process.

 

 

 

Optical Touchscreens and Industrial Applications

 

Most touchscreens might be based on capacitance sensing technology. But the use of optical control ASIC technology surpasses common expectations. This is because it enables light-based touchscreens more resistant to external mechanical impact.

 

  • 3rd dimension touchscreens
  • Underwater utility
  • Cost-efficient solution

 

Cutting edge optical technology is also used to provide first-rate touch experience for customers. This has been made possible with the use of advanced optomechanics and signal processing.

 

This sets new standards in touchscreen technology because you can get unique clarity in the screen. Moreover, it provides more resistance to external impact compared to traditional touchscreens.

 

The combination of a microprocessor and an optical sensor with the use of ASIC technology will enable the calculation of the coordinates of the finger when touching the screen. In other sensor applications where light disappears when moving, the photodiode Opto-ASIC principles are used. This can be seen in precision machinery and rotation control/detection in robotics.

 

 

 

Distance Measurement with Time of Flight Technology

 

Optical chip ASICs provide accurate measurement of distance on the basis of the time required for emitted photons to be reflected and measured on receiving diodes. The photodiodes become sensitive to specific wavelengths with the use of different optical filters.

 

The manufacture of optical filters will depend on the requirements of the customers. Most often, in order to obtain maximum measurement accuracy, 2-phase or 4-phase measurements are enabled for this application.

 

 

 

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

System on a Chip

Combining Analog and Digital ICs for Mixed Signal ASIC Design

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Over the years, the most innovative companies around the world have tapped the potential of applied specific integrated circuit (ASIC) solutions. In fact, the industry has capitalized on mixed-signal ASIC design and products as it understands the needs of the customers.

 

 

Perhaps you have already encountered the term mixed-signal ASIC design. Well, that is because it can be found everywhere nowadays, particularly in smart mobile devices. This is an integrated circuit containing both analog and digital circuits on a single semiconductor die.

 

 

At the same time, it processes both analog and digital signals. For instance, one example of a mixed-signal circuit is the analog-to-digital converter. This type of system or circuit is an example of a cost-effective solution to build any modern consumer electronic applications.

 

 

 

Chip Design

 

The design and manufacture of mixed-signal ASIC design are more difficult in comparison with analog-only or digital-only integrated circuits. One of the notable differences is that it is more efficient because it shares a common power supply with its analog and digital components. However, it would be an essential goal in chip design as its components have different power needs and consumption characteristics.

 

 

 

Lowest Risk Path

 

In terms of cost reduction, ASICs and highly integrated system-on-chip solutions are advantageous and can increase the performance providing the lowest risk path to success. This is because it uses an extensive library of proven circuit IP so that it can speed up projects.

 

 

 

Optical Chips

 

The industry has developed image sensor chips and ICs for different sensor applications. This will provide high sensitivity, fast image updates, and low power consumption. This smart single-chip optical system has been integrated across various industrial environments, which includes data communication via RF links, IoT, motion and luminance detection, and object tracking.

 

 

This employs minimal image resolution required for each application. At the same time, it works together with smart software algorithms to integrate image sensing capabilities into optical sensor solutions with or without battery.

 

 

 

Advantages of Combining Analog and Digital ICs

 

Mixed-signal ASIC design provides engineers the potential to reduce the complexity of multiple integrated circuit designs into one IC. This concept has already become commercially viable and widely available. Here are some of the benefits of using mixed-signal ASIC:

 

  • Reduction in cost
  • Reliability improvement
  • Protection of intellectual property
  • Low power consumption
  • Miniaturization
  • Improvement in performance

 

 

Analog and mixed-signal ASIC design are found in products used by consumers all over the world in different segments of the market, such as the following:

 

  • Instrumentation
  • Industrial sensors to flight control
  • Cosmetics to healthcare
  • Credit card scanners to mobile devices

 

 

A mixed-signal ASIC design combines the competencies of the analog and digital circuit designs. Dozens of ASIC chips are now used in cars to provide the mechanism for basic functions such as airbag deployment, climate control, and entertainment systems.

 

 

Many establishments also take advantage of ASIC chips in the delivery of basic services, particularly in manufacturing and medical facilities.

 

 

 

Linear MicroSystems, Inc. is proud to offer its services worldwide as well as the surrounding areas and cities around our Headquarters in Irvine, CA: Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Orange County, Fullerton, and Los Angeles.

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How a Typical System on a Chip Works

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When you buy a mobile device, the multi-core capabilities, processing power, and speed often matter the most. But as you generally focus on the processor, there are more complex things happening. In fact, there is a system-on-a-chip (SoC) within these devices offering more complex functionalities.

 

 

 

What Is SoC?

 

The fact that mobile devices are basically smaller computers, they have the same components as do desktops and laptops. Therefore, they are able to do amazing things just as your computers normally do.

 

However, these tiny computers are not able to provide the same capacity as your desktop or laptop for different components needed. Such would include the graphics card, processor, and RAM.

 

 

 

Components of A SoC

 

There are a number of components you can find inside an SoC chip that you may need to know in order to understand how they work. Here are the general details so that you may be able to get an idea of what goes on inside a system-on-a-chip.

 

  • Central Processing Unit (CPU) – This component makes everything possible when you use your smartphone. CPUs can be single- or multiple-core processor, which is mostly based on ARM technology.

 

  • Memory – A computer has the memory required to perform different tasks, which is also what you can find in an SoC in your smartphone or tablet. An SoC basically has different memory architectures inside to fulfill its tasks efficiently.

 

  • Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) – Another important part you can find on the SoC is the GPU. It is responsible for handling complex 3D games on your mobile devices. There are many GPU architectures available in the market just as you might expect.

 

  • Northbridge – A component that is capable of handling communications between a CPU and other components of the SoC is called a Northbridge or Southbridge.

 

  • Southbridge – Another component capable of handling various input/output functions is the second chipset called the Southbridge. This component is found inside the SoC in some cases.

 

  • Cellular Radios – There are certain modems that you can find in a system-on-a-chip needed by mobile operators. This is the case for the Snapdragon S4 from Qualcomm, which has an embedded LTE modem on board. This will be responsible for the 4G LTE connectivity.

 

  • Other Radios – You may also find other types of connectivity that SoCs use, including Bluetooth, GPS/GLONASS, or Wi-Fi.

 

 

 

Different Types Of SoC

 

There are different types of SoC chips used by various manufacturers of mobile devices. They are not entirely similar, so here are a few of the most popular system-on-a-chip found in your mobile devices.

 

  • NVIDIA Tegra 3
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon S4
  • Samsung Exynos 4 Quad
  • Intel Medfield
  • Texas Instruments OMAP 4
  • ST-Ericsson NovaThor

 

 

Apple also has its own system-on-a-chip which is the popular line of AX chips, namely the A9X, A10X, and A12X. These chips have been many of the iOS devices of Apple starting with the iPad. Its flagship Apple SoC is the A10X, but its newest model iPad Pro utilizes the A12X SoC chipset.

 

 

 

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