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The Shaughnessy Report: Silicon to Systems—The Walls Are Coming Down

Are the walls really coming down?

Traditionally, most designers of PCBs and ICs have operated in separate silos, unaware of much of what’s happening upstream or downstream. IC designers did their thing, and PCB designers did theirs, and everything worked. Until recently, that is.

Now, the increase in complexity in electronics is driving technologists throughout the electronics supply chain to adopt a “silicon to systems” outlook. Advanced packaging systems are causing PCB designers problems with signal integrity and power delivery requirements, as well as thermal issues. Sub-nanosecond edge rates in ICs are wreaking havoc with signal integrity engineers at the board level.

Now, designers need to know it all, from "soup to nuts." As we learn in this issue, IPC introduced the term “silicon-to-systems” in 2021 as a handy way to sum up the magnitude of the challenges facing the domestic electronics manufacturing segment in the U.S. As IPC CTO Matt Kelly, who coined the term, explains, “Everything follows silicon.”

What does all this mean to PCB designers?
This month, in the September 2024 issue of Design007 Magazine we asked our expert contributors to weigh in on silicon-to-systems—what it means to PCB designers and design engineers, EDA companies, and the rest of the PCB supply chain. Will designers eventually be required to understand everything from semiconductors through system level and final assembly?

We start out with a conversation with Matt Kelly, Devan Iyer, and Kris Moyer, all of IPC, who discuss the advent of the silicon-to-systems approach, as well as what the industry needs to do to embrace this concept. Next, design instructor Soo Lan Cheah shares her thoughts on silicon to systems; she has experience designing PCBs and ICs, which gives her a great viewpoint. Barry Olney has a great column on the integration of ICs and PCBs, including automating the boundary between FPGAs and PCBs.

We have a conversation with Stephen Chavez, who explains why PCB designers must have a greater understanding of silicon and packaging if they want to be true experts at their jobs. John Park discusses Cadence’s approach to “cross-domain” design functionality. Columnist Vern Solberg breaks down heterogeneous integration and its use in high-density SiP. And we have a conversation with Duane Benson, who explains why silicon to systems should be a “wake-up call” for the industry. We also have columns from Matt Stevenson and Joe Fjelstad.

It's show time again. We’ll be covering PCB West, SMTA International, and PCB Carolina, as well as SMTA Guadalajara Expo & Tech Forum and the IPC High Reliability Forum. Hope to see you there.

This column appears in the September 2024 issue of Design007 Magazine.