Silicon to Systems: A Wake-up Call for the Industry

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Duane Benson, founder of Positive Edge, has been working with silicon and packaging for longer than some of our newer readers have been alive. We asked him to share his thoughts on silicon to systems, which Duane says is much more than a buzzword—it’s a wake-up call for the industry.

Andy Shaughnessy: We’re seeing more technologists pointing out the need for PCB designers to focus on silicon to systems. What does this term mean to you?

Duane Benson: Silicon to systems implies a holistic approach to design. It means that someone designing a component or subsystem will produce a better product by considering the entire system, from the supply chain through design and to the purchasers and users of the product. In other words, don’t design a product that can’t be built or that doesn’t really fit a need, and while designing it, communicate with others on the overall design team.

Shaughnessy: Many designers don’t know much about what happens at the silicon level, mainly because they’ve never really had to learn. What are the most important things that PCB designers need to understand about silicon?

Benson: Digging deep isn’t a requirement for many products. A lot of good designs have come from engineers who understand the way something works, but not the physics or chemistry underneath. That being said, I think that understanding the silicon level is becoming more important as speeds and density increase. Many engineers still think in terms of analog vs. digital electronics. They even design mixed signal electronics from the perspective of one side or the other. It’s not so simple anymore. In anything but the most basic of design levels now, that distinction is less relevant. Microcontrollers (MCUs) and systems on chip (SoC) mix analog, digital, and even programmable logic in the same part. On the leading edge, speeds are so fast that you can’t really look at it as either digital or analog. When designing in those regimes, even the electron physics becomes relevant.

To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the September 2024 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.