The 10 most disruptive companies in semiconductor industry compressed

www.insightssuccess.com VOL 11 | ISSUE 05 | 2021
Tapping Into
Speed
Understanding
Semiconductor
Enhancing
Capabilities
Key Growth Drivers
of the Semiconductor
Industry

Achieving
Leading-Edge
Capabilities
he semiconductor industry plays a heroic narrative,
Tcarrying innovative technological developments on
its back while tackling the current challenges. It
plays a vital role by providing various chips that are the
absolute pinnacle pillar of all technological developments
in the ever-evolving digital world.
Pioneering companies in the semiconductor industry are
constantly trying to achieve leading-edge capabilities by
creating advanced semiconductor chips with increased
memory capacity and more incredible computational
abilities that will help take the revolution of digitalization to
the next level. The vast applications of these chips are
widespread in various industries, upscaling the utilization to
assist various components maximizing the capabilities to
speed up the processes at a never before seen pace.
Semiconductor chips power technologies to enrich people's
lives by assisting several businesses in running faster,
smarter, and with increased operational eﬃciencies. With
the pandemic disrupting the semiconductor industry
globally, creating a signiﬁcant shortage of chips,
semiconductor companies prioritize achieving design and
manufacturing capacities to tackle this issue head-on. These
companies intend to develop solid capabilities chips to aid
the supply chain, research, intellectual property protection,
and navigating policies for designing and manufacturing
highly capable semiconductor chips.
Resolving construction issues, moderating equipment costs,
and enhancing internal capabilities can help semiconductor
companies attain manufacturing excellence for building
chips that give a strong performance with low power
consumption can create the maximum impact in the
industry. The advanced semiconductor chips are the brain
behind modern electronics, and all the modern system runs
with these advanced chips.
Editor’s Desk

What oxygen is to humans is what semiconductor is
to modern electronic products. The more advanced
the semiconductor chips, the more capabilities they
can provide. The semiconductor companies can
create more modern products with advanced
semiconductor chips that consumers will enjoy with
greater computational abilities and enhanced
memory into contemporary electronic products. Such
companies can disrupt the semiconductor industry to
a great extent by creating products with leading-edge
capacities.
Semiconductor chips are the essential thing that the
world has ever known since they are the brain behind
powering modern technologies. Semiconductor
companies are creating world-changing disruptions
by providing various industries from Artificial
Intelligence, automation, space tourism, genomics
medicine, electronics by designing and
manufacturing the most advanced semiconductor
chips.
Insights Success started a voyage to find "The 10
Most Disruptive Companies in Semiconductor
Industry." This edition will take you through the
impeccable testaments these companies have
achieved over the years and boldly engrave their
name in the industry.
While flipping through pages, have a glance at the
articles written by our in-house editorial team.
Enjoy the read!
sharad@insightssuccess.com
Sharad Chitalkar

Cover Story
NEO Semiconductor
The Next Leap in
Semiconductor Revolution
08
Articles
Enhancing Capabilities
Key Growth Drivers of the
Semiconductor Industry
20 Tapping Into Speed
Understanding Semiconductor
32
Agile Analog
Analog IP the Way You
Want It
16

Ambiq
Endpoint Intelligence
24
Diakopto
Game-changing EDA Solutions
28
Efinix
Providing High Performance and
Reconfigurable FPGAs for Meeting
Computing Demands of Mainstream
Applications
34
Omega Optics
Connecting the World
40
C
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November, 2021
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Brief
Company Name
Jensen Huang
Founder
NVIDIA
nvidia.com
NVIDIA’s invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of
the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics,
and revolutionized parallel computing.
Pete Hutton
Executive Chairman
Agile Analog
agileanalog.com
Agile Analog is missioned to transform the landscape of the
Analog IP market space.
NEO Semiconductor
neosemic.com
Andy Hsu
Founder and CEO
NEO Semiconductor is a startup company focused on 3D
NAND flash memory technology.
Diakopto
diakopto.com
Maxim Ershov CEO
CTO and Co-founder
Diakopto is a rapidly growing startup developing revolutionary
EDA software platform, tools and methodologies.
Ray Chen
Founder
Omega Optics
omegaoptics.com
Omega Optics has developed a family of high performance,
reliable, low-cost and portable products for various applications
in optical sensing, bio-sensing, and optical communications.
Nova
novami.com
Zohar Gil
Chief Marketing
and Business
Development Officer
Nova delivers continuous innovation by providing advanced
metrology solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing
industry.
Ambiq Micro
ambiq.com
Fumihide Esaka
Chairman and CEO
Ambiq was founded on the simple yet powerful notion that
extremely low-power semiconductors are the key to the future
of electronics.
Applied Materials
appliedmaterials.com
Michael Sullivan
Corporate VP
Applied Materials is the leader in materials engineering
solutions.
SEMINEX
seminex.com
Daniel Chu
VP of Marketing and
Business Development
SemiNex Corporation manufactures high power, infrared laser
diodes for military, industrial, cosmetic and medical
applications.
Efinix
efinixinc.com
Efinix' mission is to drive the future of edge computing with its
FPGA silicon platforms.
Sammy Cheung
Co-Founder, President
and CEO
Featured Person

s a business leader, one might scoff at the thought
Aof inspiration in leadership. Some business leaders
may dismiss the vision as over-the-top, and
perhaps even pretentious. But, the world of innovation,
creating wealth, great professional bonds can all be a little
jarring. Without inspiration to drive a natural sense of
curiosity and aspiration – the rail of productivity can
quickly lose steam. On the other hand, there is a concrete
way to step forward, to build, and to deliver inspiration. A
company that encapsulates the spirit of inspiration at every
step is NEO Semiconductor.
A Game-Changing Innovation
Soon after its beginning in San Jose, California in 2012, the
company dedicated in 3D NAND flash memory technology
and, after six years of development, devised its signature X-
NAND architecture for semiconductor chips. The
architecture has become a benchmark for excellence in the
semiconductor industry. The award-winning architecture
solves the key issue of speed and lack of adaptation in old
semiconductor chips. Today, the X-NAND architecture
improves random read and write speeds by 3 times,
sequential write speeds by 15 times, and sequential read
speeds by 30 times. This is the benchmark of excellence at
NEO Semiconductor in a nutshell.
NEO Semiconductor creates solutions to some of the most
pressing technology issues of our time. NEO
Semiconductor focuses on developing fundamentally game-
changing technology. Once it has achieved this goal, it
offers the technology to the world at large. Its clients stand
to win by applying their IP patents to some remarkable
challenges that are at the forefront of commercial
investments. However, it isn’t just the commercial promise
of its application that makes the company stand out among
its competitors.

The X-NAND architecture solves the core issue of
flexibility and adaptability in semiconductor chips. Major
technology giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Google are
pushing chip manufacturers to create AI-enabled chips.
These chips need to access massive data and AI algorithm
stored in high-speed emerging memory chips. These
memory chips are likely to be tremendously expensive, and
their potential adaptation to millions of upcoming AI
function remains a worry. On the other hand, the X-NAND
simply offers new architecture to drastically increase the
performance of NAND flash memory for single-level cell,
multi-level cell, triple-level cell, and quad-level cells. Its
adaptation to various different cell levels enables it to offer
data storage systems in key futurist applications like AI,
IoT, and cloud. According to Andy Hsu, the Founder and
CEO of NEO Semiconductor, “the architecture offers a
high-speed, high-density, low cost, low risk, fast-turnaround
solution for NAND flash memory”.
A Prospect of Stability in Global Supply Chains
The semiconductor industry is on the verge of a major leap
in terms of technology. On the one hand, the issues with
speed, adaptability, and upcoming AI applications remain
key challenges for the semiconductor business. This has
resulted in major supply chain delays across the globe,
resulting in increased costs and disruptions in cross-
industry collaboration. On the other hand, AI applications
promise a new arena of opportunities for the semiconductor
which transcend beyond some wild theories on commercial
prospects. For example, semiconductor chips are likely to
be introduced in new automated vehicles, and every other
AI-driven future application, including refrigerators,
smartphones, IoT, virtual personal assistants, and more.
These all rely on high-speed processing of huge amount of
data stored in memory chips. However, the technology to
make the leap is missing.
NEO Semiconductor’s signature X-NAND architecture
promises to solve the supply disruption in the high-speed
data storage industry. The supply chain disruption has
partially come to the fore due to increased demand from
clients to upgrade NAND flash memory. This is critical for
the growing need to improve data storage for a wide range
of machine learning, and AI applications.
However, solving this challenge is not straightforward. For
example, while upgrading traditional memory modules to
emerging memories like FRAM, PCM, RRAM, requires
new processes, and new materials. On the other hand, the
X-NAND architecture does not require clients to invest in
new technology, and can be directly applied to the old
technology. Hence, companies can integrate X-NAND
technology in their existing AI-enabled NAND flash
memory framework to build the next product without any
additional costs, research, or delays.
An Inspirational Journey
In 2020, NEO Semiconductor was awarded the ‘Most
Innovative Flash Memory Startup’Award at the Flash
Memory Summit. Its CEO believes NEO Semiconductor
will continue to scale new heights, thanks to the growing
backbone of its expertise in the 3D flash chip arena. Today,
the company is solving a wide range of challenges in the
semiconductor industry, including resistive memory, AI
chip technology, ultra-low power CMOS-based IoT
memory, and phase-change memory. Andy notes that these
are key to embracing an increasingly mobile workforce.
“As the pandemic raged on, everything in-between
working, education, gaming, social interactions became
virtual.”
This has sparked a tremendous demand for faster, and
higher density NAND flash memory systems. NEO
Semiconductor is ready to tackle the growing challenge of
competition head-on with its signature technology. The
company plans to offer a customized solution to key
business arenas like cloud, and data centers with specialized
solutions. NEO Semiconductor will provide TLC-QLC

products for data centers, and cloud
providers. Moreover, it will offer SLC-
MLC products for mid-stream
applications such as Storage Class
Memory or SCM. For down-stream
applications such as embedded
systems, the company will offer serial
NAND flash memory. The strategic
and wise planning will likely ensure a
speedy scaling up of entire data storage
hierarchical system to meet the needs
of most stakeholders in the industry.
Every organization aims to instill an
inspired workforce at the heart of its
operation. Such operation is critical for
the success of most but essential for
enterprises investing in breakthrough
R&D. Knowledge is often acquired as
building blocks to build something
bigger, and better. Such acquisition can
take years in efforts, and investment.
Furthermore, such investments reside
in the murky waters of uncertainty. For
example, a company seeking to find a
replacement for lithium-ion material
for electric batteries may never find
one. Hence, a company culture geared
to find the next big thing in the R&D
arena must find ways to inspire itself
every day. Some say, inspiration in
essence is devotion personified, and the
leadership at NEO Semiconductor
seems to agree. According to Andy,
“The persistence, confidence, and the
relentless efforts of my team have
inspired our successful journey”.
A Committed Path to Success
Andy Hsu, and the co-founder of NEO
Semiconductor, Ray Tsay are witnesses
to many technological challenges every
day. Ray notes, “We plan to advance
semiconductor technology to
everyone’s benefit with our IP
solutions”. NEO Semiconductor has
opted for a unique path to business
growth. Nearly every company in the
business builds technology to make a
fortune for itself. While there is
.

nothing wrong with it, very few
understand the trouble that comes with
it. Especially for a startup company, it
is a huge challenge for market
competition. NEO Semiconductor has
chosen an off-beat but wise path to
growth. The company provides IP to its
clients, and remains committed to its
core area of research, by sacrificing
potential of sales, and the burden of
marketing operations among others.
A Precious Investment
In recent years, NEO Semiconductor
has taken effort to the media lane to
inform the public about its
breakthrough technology. Since its
inception, the company has walked a
clear path to work behind closed doors,
and remain stoic in pursuit of
innovation. However, in its effort to
give back to the community, the
company plans to invest in education
of science and technology in various
ways. The company founders now
frequently attend conferences, media
events, and virtual seminars to spread
positivity about innovation in science
and technology- NEO Semiconductor
has been scheduled to be featured on
CNBC Advancement TV series
educational program. The program will
go on air in November 2021.
Only time can tell whether company’s
investment in education pays off.
However, with a committed and
devoted team effort, there is very little
to stop NEO Semiconductor to reach
the pinnacle of success.

Agile Analog
Analog IP the Way You Want It
Until now, buyers of analog IP have had to settle for
the least bad option from a limited portfolio of
standard IP products.
Agile Analog is the company behind a new approach: to
give the designers of ASICs and SoCs the analog IP that
they really want. And to enable this new approach, they
developed the very unique COMPOSA™ methodology for
the generation of customer-specified IP fresh for every new
chip design from any foundry on any node.
With a mission to transform the landscape of the Analog IP
market space, Agile Analog has expanded the portfolio for
standard IP products. Executive Chairman Pete Hutton
brings a vast amount of IP experience to the team from his
time at Arm and has aggressive plans for the company’s
growth
We at Insights Success caught up with Pete Hutton in our
endeavor to find “The 10 Most Disruptive Companies in
Semiconductor Industry.” We talked with Pete to
understand how Agile Analog is changing the landscape of
Analog IP.
Below are the highlights of the interview.
Give us a brief overview of your company, its mission,
and the key aspects of its strong foothold in the
Semiconductor industry.
Agile Analog brings freedom of choice to IC designers in
their use of analog circuits (analog IP). For too long,
designers have been restricted in terms of timescales,
process choice, or functionality of the analog circuits they
want to use. In many cases, the analog tail wags the SoC
dog.
Agile Analog provides exactly the analog IP that customers
want by changing the existing manual design paradigm into
a fully automated end-to-end flow.
Describe your top-notch offerings that address the need
of your customers.
We have internal automation technology which captures
analog IP designs and then enables those designs to be
quickly and reliability generated on new silicon processes
so that it precisely matches the customer’s requirements.
What makes your company a preferred choice among
your clientele over other competitors?
We’re the only supplier who gives customers the analog IP
that they want on the process they want. Our approach is
completely silicon process independent and can generate
the same design on 180nm or FinFET, and will tailor
the design for the process.
No other vendor can do this without undertaking a
long, expensive, and potentially bug-ridden
manual process.
Analog IP the way you want it.
“ “
16 | November 2021 www.insightssuccess.com
The 10 Most Disruptive Companies in Semiconductor Industry

17
|
November 2021
www.insightssuccess.com
Pete Hutton
Executive Chairman
Agile Analog

How is your company implying the latest innovative
technologies to streamline your work process?
We have created our own design flow by interfacing to and
driving leading-edge EDA tools from Cadence, Mentor, and
Synopsys. All our design and data is cloud-hosted, and our
engineers can access their designs and tools anywhere in
the world.
Communications internally and with customers use all the
latest technologies.
Describe the values that drive your organization.
Partner and Quality-focused to make sure that we always do
the best for the people we’re supplying, and we go above
and beyond to make them successful with their designs.
An open, transparent, and collaborative Engineering
organization with people at all levels of the company
empowered to make the right decisions.
In your opinion, what could be the future of the
Semiconductor market post the COVID-19 pandemic?
And how are you strategizing your company’s
operations for that future?
Covid has made two massive changes to the technology
world. The first is that we’ve seen 15 years of technological
change accelerated over the last 18 months. The second is
that remote working and video calls have become
commonplace.
We’ve already seen the technical change ripple through into
semiconductor demand, and that will continue, as will the
dynamic that pushes most technology companies to design
their own silicon. Since all ICs use analog IP, then that’s
just a tailwind acceleration of what we’re already doing.
Remote working means that people need security more than
ever since they have distributed working environments, and
we’re all now mixing home and office working, and so our
focus on that area is beneficial.
In what ways have you or your company contributed to
the community?
We support startups through partnerships with people like
Silicon Catalyst and direct training and guidance for
companies doing their first silicon. We’re engaging with
industry activities around security to drive standardization
and secure our customer’s products.
What are your future aspirations? Where do you see
your company in the next five years?
In the next five years, we will have our technology, both
analog IP and perhaps also methodology, out in most of the
new ICs being designed.

Key Growth Drivers of the
Semiconductor
Industry
Semiconductor
Industry

S
emiconductors are the most important driving
instruments of all the progress in technological
developments. The semiconductor industry that
manufactures semiconductor or supplies materials is
experiencing continuous growth due to continuously rising
technological developments. The global semiconductor
market is growing rapidly with the increasing necessity of
semiconductor materials in Artificial-Intelligence driven
electronics. It is growing extensively with needs like long
battery life, biometric verification necessities in maximum
places, and maximizing AI capabilities.
The ongoing innovations, data centers, increasing use of
electronic components, and advanced software in the
semiconductor industry contribute to the semiconductor
industry's growth. Developing secured chips is one of the
most important parts in the semiconductor industry for
enhanced security of the products. The semiconductor
industry needs to constantly innovate products to meet the
evolving technology needs.
Smaller chips are in more demand because they require less
power and better support wireless connectivity.
Semiconductor chips power technologies for enriching the
lives of customers and for making businesses run faster,
smarter, and with enhanced functionalities and operational
efficiency. The key drivers that play the most significant
role in the growth of the semiconductor industry are:
• The increasing use of technologies such as AI, IoT, and
cloud computing
• The increasing need for autonomous and electric
vehicles
• The growth of 5G and AR/VR technology,
• Transition to 10nm node and beyond, and also
• Reduction in corporate taxes
From advanced data analytics, facial recognition software,
military equipment, and self-driving cars, AI applications
are practically present in most of the fields. The
continuously growing need for AI-based applications in
different industries is creating new growth opportunities for
suppliers and manufacturers in the semiconductor industry.
Artificial Intelligence technology is also bringing
improvements in the manufacturing of the semiconductor
industry. It is helping to speed up the processes in the
semiconductor industry, increasing the performance
capabilities of the semiconductor chips, improving
production efficiency, reducing production costs and time,
and increasing output.
Semiconductor chips play a vital role in the innovation and
growth of automotive technologies used for electric
vehicles and connected cars. With the rising use of electric
vehicles and autonomous vehicles, the need for
semiconductor chips will be huge. The companies in the
semiconductor industry have to meet the rising need for
semiconductor chips. The automotive market is evolving
and growing rapidly and will continue to grow more in the
future. To meet this increasing demand, manufacturing
processes in the industry should evolve.
A rapidly growing market gives an opportunity for
automotive semiconductors to enhance battery performance
in electric vehicles, for supporting increased connectivity in
cars, enhancing the capability of sensors and other
technologies. The fascination for more and more nano
products with maximum functionalities is increasing very
significantly. The shift to smaller nodes gives companies in
the semiconductor industry a competitive edge as these
smaller nodes help in less power consumption and
increased performance of products.
The semiconductor industry also benefits from the
increasing use of 5G technology in society and the
acceptance of augmented reality and virtual reality in
industrial businesses and gaming companies. The use of
semiconductors in many industries is creating increasing
business opportunities for semiconductor companies in the
semiconductor industry. The reduction in the corporate tax
is also developing a favorable and affordable business
atmosphere for companies in the USA semiconductor
industry. This attracts investments in the country and in
turn, makes semiconductor solution companies more
competitive in the research, design, and manufacturing
processes. This can lead to maximum profitability and
revenue for the semiconductor companies in the
semiconductor industry.
More businesses are moving towards digitalization, smart
home, smart gaming technologies, and more. The necessity
of remote work functionalities, increasing demand for smart
electronic products are also driving the growth in the
semiconductor industry. Those companies who will succeed
in creating smaller, faster, and affordable semiconductor
products will become the most significant player in the
semiconductor industry and can avail a competitive
advantage over others. Driven by automotive sectors, AI
applications, IoT, communication technologies, and data
processing fields, the semiconductor industry's future is
highly bright as the need of this industry is going to be huge
in the future.
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|
November 2021
Enhancing Capabilities

diverse spectrum of experiences and skillset; we came
together and united with one goal to enable the true Internet
of Things where the battery-powered endpoint devices can
truly be connected intuitively and intelligently 24/7.
We came across Ambiq in our quest to find "The 10 Most
Disruptive Companies in Semiconductor Industry." We
talked with Fumihide to understand how Ambiq is
maximizing industrial design flexibility.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Ambiq has been on a singular mission to put intelligence
everywhere by creating the most energy-efficient
semiconductor solutions for battery-powered IoT endpoint
devices since 2010. Ambiq has helped many leading
manufacturers worldwide develop products that can operate
for days, months, and sometimes years on a battery and
even do away with the battery entirely by harvesting
energy.
Ambiq's patented Subthreshold Power Optimized
Technology (SPOT™) platform has revolutionized the
equation between operations and power consumption to
support products to run more functions for much longer.
Our ultimate goal is to enable Artificial Intelligence (AI) on
mobile and portable devices that are not possible without
Ambiq's advanced ultra-low-power microcontroller (MCU)
and System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions. With over 100 million
units shipped in 2020, and are on track to meet our goal to
enable intelligence on more than 100 billion IoT endpoint
devices in the near future. For more information, visit
www.ambiq.com.
of your customers.
IoT devices today, such as wearables, hearables, game
consoles, remote controls, etc., demand more features and
functionalities than ever before, especially when the
COVID-19 pandemic happened. People are concerned
about their own health and the welfare and health of their
loved ones. Our solution aims to enable the development of
new features and functionalities on new products without
sacrificing power usage.
“Ambiq – your
partner in
endpoint
intelligence.”
To unlock the full potential of the Internet of Things
(IoT) devices, it is essential to find energy-efficient
semiconductors that can assist the magnitude of
their growth in the near future. However, companies
working in this niche face various problems such as
inadequate security, limited customer demands, and
technology barriers. To resolve these issues, Ambiq is
committed to improving the quality of life by enabling the
intelligence of endpoints while further reducing carbon
footprints.
With over two decades of experience in senior
management, Fumihide Esaka, the Chairman and CEO
of Ambiq, oversees the operations with his meticulous
attention and accuracy. Under his leadership, Ambiq has a

Fumihide Esaka
Chairman & CEO
Ambiq
25
|
November 2021

There are a few reasons why 9 out of the top 10 wearable
companies are working with Ambiq. What sets Ambiq apart
from the rest of the semiconductor companies first and
foremost is our proprietary technology platform, SPOT.
Rather than using transistors that are turned all the way
"on," subthreshold circuits use the leakage of "off"
transistors to compute in both the digital and analog
domains.
With most computations handled by using only leakage
current, total system power consumption on the order of
nanoamps is easily achieved. Operation at such low
voltages is very challenging due to susceptibility to noise,
high sensitivity to temperature, and variability due to
process drift. In developing the SPOT™ platform, Ambiq
has addressed all of these challenges by redesigning every
analog and digital circuit in the chip to adapt to the
temperature, voltage, and manufacturing variations at these
voltage levels.
From customer service representatives to our Chairman and
CEO, everyone at Ambiq is committed to supporting our
customers and channel partners to achieve their goals.
How is your company applying the latest innovative
technologies to streamline your work process?
We are constantly looking into ways to improve our tools
and processes to be more efficient and competitive. With
that in mind, we keep an open environment where our
employees feel free to communicate their thoughts and
concerns about our existing tools and processes. In the last
two years alone, we've adopted new martech services to
help with PR distribution, media monitoring, email
automation, CRM, Microsoft SharePoint for internal and
external collaborations, and inventory access management
to help streamline various processes.
Our mission is to put intelligence everywhere. Our vision is
to deliver the world's most energy-efficient solutions to
enable artificial intelligence to the endpoint. We value
collaboration, creativity, innovation, openness, and most
importantly, trust and integrity. With a diverse hardware
portfolio and a full suite of software solutions, Ambiq is
poised to unleash Endpoint AI and bring true intelligence to
devices beyond the Edge. Ambiq has set a higher bar for the
entire power semiconductor ecosystem to follow by
demonstrating what was unattainable by other
semiconductor manufacturers.
And how are you strategizing your company's
We envision the IoT to continue to rapidly expand to enable
everything connected and possibly automated to
communicate with each other and deliver decision-making
insights; the need for semiconductors will grow
exponentially. As the COVID interrupted the entire supply
chain, the growing demand for chips will continue to be a
challenge to most manufacturers as the demand and need
for better products with new features will always be there.
the community?
Ambiq opened offices in six countries, the USA, Taiwan,
China, Singapore, Japan, and India, to support the local
economics and become more embedded into the daily
fabrics of the communities we serve. We proactively reach
out to local academic institutions to offer free lectures and
paid internships. Our goal of putting intelligence at the IoT
endpoint is to ultimately contribute to a better, cleaner, and
more sustainable environment where battery use can be
extended or eliminated.
Ambiq's continuous cooperation on Sony environmental
quality assurance activities is now a certified Sony Green
Partner.
What are your future aspirations? Where do you see
your company in the next five years?
Ambiq strives to put intelligence everywhere. Artificial
intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are currently
executed either in the Cloud or at the edge as they require a
massive amount of energy for computation. Our patented
Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT™)
platform will, for the first time, extend the AI and ML to the
endpoint where devices rely on batteries to operate. We
envision the future of an interconnected world where
mobile and portable devices can run complex operations for
optimum user experience for days, weeks, or months with a
single charge.

27
|
November 2021

“We offer a unique EDA
methodology that dramatically
accelerates IC design debugging
and optimization by helping
engineers analyze, visualize and
debug a broad range of problems
caused by layout parasitics.”
Game-changing EDA Solutions
Maxim Ershov
CEO, CTO, &
Co-founder
Diakopto

While the semiconductor industry has been facing
the chip-shortage for about a year now, one
major issue that has been lurking in the
shadows for years but hasn't got much consideration is
debugging layout parasitics. To deal with the problem,
Diakopto was founded on the recognition that parasitics are
now a first-order problem. The semiconductor industry
demands a radical change in methodology and tools to meet
the challenge.
Committed to resolving this issue, Co-founder Maxim
Ershov pioneered a new methodology that attacks the
problem from the perspective of the engineers tasked with
IC design and layout optimization. As the CEO and CTO
of the company, he is driving the development of a new
breed of EDA tools - easy to use, intuitive, orders of
magnitude faster, visual, and providing actionable insights.
Let us have a rundown of their innovative approach.
The Overview
Expressing his view, Maxim states that the industry
migration to advanced FinFET nodes (16nm and below) -
coupled with the demand for higher speed and higher
precision circuits - has led to a paradigm shift: parasitics
from on-chip wires and interconnects are now more
problematic than transistors. The increased complexity –
more metal layers, thinner, narrower, proximity to each
other – has driven an exponential rise in the number,
magnitude, and severity of parasitics impacting on-chip
performance, power, and time-to-market; at the same time,
market windows are shrinking.
Maxim continues that existing EDA tools and
methodologies have not adapted to this new reality, and
because of this the industry has experienced a perfect storm.
Engineers spend countless days and weeks trying to resolve
numerous problems caused by layout parasitics. Most EDA
tools treat parasitics analysis as a "black box," delivering no
insights into the causes of problems, forcing engineers to
adopt a trial-and-error approach.
Diakopto is disrupting the industry by offering unique
products to fill a void to end the frustrating and time-
consuming debugging process. Its products are designed
around a new approach to help engineers develop next-
generation chips more effectively and efficiently. The
methodology is based on three principles:
1) Find the sources of major design problems to focus
resources on the most critical issues that impact the overall
circuit (and don't spend time on insignificant issues).
2) Speed the analysis, so results come back significantly
faster.
3) Provide visual context so engineers can see where
problems occur and how they impact overall circuit
performance.
And an overriding theme is to make the company's
solutions intuitive, easy, and enjoyable to use.
Best-in-Class
Diakopto's first product, ParagonX™, was announced this
year and is proving to fill the gap unmet by other
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|
November 2021

approaches to debugging and design optimization.
ParagonX delivers intelligence and insights that help
designers explore and find solutions to fix problems and
improve designs more quickly.
Maxim states that IC debugging and optimization time is
reduced to minutes or hours by enabling engineers to focus
effort on the most problematic parasitic elements (ignoring
thousands, even billions of insignificant ones). He says,
"ParagonX delivers a comprehensive set of rapid analyses
integrated with visualization, which helps users analyze,
visualize, and debug a broad range of problems caused by
layout parasitics. The acceleration of the design process is
aided by the capability to visualize parasitic effects over the
layout.”
Why Diakopto?
Diakopto's solutions have already been adopted by over 35
industry-leading customers, including some of the largest
semiconductor companies, system OEMs, and hyper-scale
data center corporations.
Maxim believes there are numerous reasons for the rapid
adoption of the company's products. With today's design
complexity and iterative nature of the design flow,
designers and layout engineers need a tool to help them
analyze and visualize RC effects to understand and debug
circuits throughout the design process. Before ParagonX,
no such tool existed. ParagonX spots RC weaknesses in the
circuit layout without requiring lengthy simulations.
ParagonX provides IC design, CAD, and layout engineers
an understanding of parasitic effects to more intelligently
identify the main sources of circuit problems caused by
interconnects and focus their efforts on resolving those that
will yield the greatest benefits for the overall circuit. This
results in fewer iterations during simulation because of the
analyses and optimizations enabled by ParagonX at the
design phase.
Sharing his insights, Maxim says, "ParagonX compliments
existing design flows and doesn't replace any existing tools.
The disruption it is causing is that it enhances existing
design processes, and for the first time, puts a targeted tool
in the hands of those engineers tasked with parasitics
debugging. Elevating their endeavors from a "whack-a-
mole" approach to one that facilitates design optimization
with insight as a key part of the process.”
The Pillars of Diakopto
Talking about the values of the organization, Maxim says,
"As engineers and scientists focused on EDA, we are
committed to helping engineers engaged in solving the
increasingly critical and often frustrating problem of
parasitics debugging.”
He adds, "Parasitics debugging is often viewed as dirty
work, something that everyone knows is an enormous
issue”, but points out that to date, there's been no glamour
in having to deal with it and no tools specifically designed
to address this. "We are passionate about delivering
solutions that elevate parasitics debugging, design
verification, and optimization to their rightful place in the
IC design process. We help accelerate time-to-tapeout – and
even make dealing with parasitics an enjoyable endeavor
for our customers," asserts Maxim.
Helping Hand to the Design Community
Diakopto solutions are being welcomed by the IC design
community it serves. For the first time, the parasitics
debugging process empowers engineers to leverage their
experience and intellect more highly to impact the quality
of the overall design and make significant contributions to
PPA.
Envisioning Future
As expected, Diakopto will continue to address the needs of
IC design verification and optimization using the same
methodology as embodied in ParagonX. The demand for
additional solutions has driven Diakopto to expand its
development team in 2021, with a highly experienced team
of engineers and scientists. The company recently released
a second product to early customers and plans additional
product introductions in 2022.

Unders
Semic
The digital revolution has powered all the things we
do, and today even a basic smartphone is more
powerful than computers. This paradigm shift has
come with the belief in technology. Look at this chain -
radio, television, film, computer, and the internet have made
us all believe in technology. The shift to integrated chips
and transistors in the electronics industry is one such
example, as it can be used for amplifiers, video processors,
computer memory, switches, and microprocessors. The
semiconductor industry has set this base of chips and
transistors, and it has tuned the manufacturing and the
electronics industry.
Today, semiconductors have become the backbone of the
digital economy; with most electronic devices often using
chips, it strengthens the manufacturing base across the
industries. So, what are the tools and methodologies that are
solving the problems?
The Energy Aspect
The current world demands additional energy, and that is
where the semiconductor industry is keeping up by being
efficient about energy usage. This includes manufacturing
for electronification vehicles, power management, and
charging stations. Additionally, to combat the heat wastage
from computer processes, a new semiconductor material for
thermal management is the answer. Its unique approach of
eco-friendly devices can use a magneto-mechano-electric
device, which converts weak magnetic fields into
electricity.
Semiconductor companies have started following eco-
friendly practices. The end goal is to build solutions for a
sustainable planet with the usage of its batteries. Its
products are smaller in size, occupy less space, consume
less power, and are extremely sensitive to temperature and
radiation. Reducing waste and evaluating materials in
manufacturing and finding geothermal energy alternatives
are some ways to become environmentally conscious.
Standing Tall in Unprecedented Times
In the times of the pandemic, the semiconductor industry
looked very much ready for the challenge, right from
protecting employees, securing supply chains, and
addressing other concerns. The demand could increase for
semiconductors in the coming time, enabling servers,
connectivity, and cloud usage with the increasing demand
for its products and services. It works contactless with
touch screens and elevator buttons, sensors that would help
smart homes and ill patients, and delivery solutions such as
robots and drones.
Key to all Answers
The semiconductor industry is constantly looking for ways
to improve its tools and methodologies to be more efficient
and competitive. It has already proved its worth since the
last few months and continues to do so across the
industries. It is the most suited and is the future-ready
solution provider to describe it in a few words. So, if we
want to unleash its true power, we need to enable
everything that can be connected with the electronics and
manufacturing companies. This will ensure the growth of
the semiconductor industry from the supply chain, to chips,
to the day-to-day working of our life.
As the demand for electronic services continues to grow,
realizing a future - a combination of sensors, data centers,
and computing capabilities, there will be much more further
developments in the semiconductor industry. The
semiconductor industry will inspire more innovative and
more powerful semiconductor-based companies. It will
drive a large portion of the for-data centers and the edge.
Thus, it is crucial to keep an eye on the semiconductor
market as it will affect the overall electronics industry and
the other way around.
With the continuous efforts, semiconductors companies
today are more rapid and agile than ever to remain
competitive. By investing in semiconductors, you will
increase productivity and develop new business strategies,
and companies will have the opportunity to overcome
barriers in digitalization with a new approach for
development. It has also become an excellent career for
entrepreneurs in the digital industry as the semiconductor
field is the next big thing.

standing
conductors
33
|
November 2021
Tapping Into Speed

Providing High Performance and Reconfigurable FPGAs
for Meeting Computing Demands of Mainstream Applications
he recent semiconductor chip shortage has got
Tseveral industries in shambles. Companies are
facing delays to deliver their products according to
their timeline. However, several companies are trying to
find alternative solutions to this shortage. Efinix is one such
company with the value proposition of the technology that
will continue to be more and more compelling over time.
Efinix is an FPGA company dedicated to providing low
power, high performance, reconfigurable FPGA platforms
to the mainstream market.
At the helm of Efinix is Sammy Cheung who is driven to
combine disruptive technologies with innovative ideas. He
is the Co-founder, President and CEO focused on
developing Efinix’s disruptive Quantum compute
technology to become the leading company in a new era of
low power embedded AI and data computing.
The Overview of Efinix
Efinix is an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array)
company dedicated to providing low power, high
performance, reconfigurable FPGA platforms to the
mainstream market. At the heart of Efinix FPGAs is a
revolutionary Quantum Compute Fabric. This efficient
fabric delivers breakthrough advantages in power
consumption, performance, and area over conventional
FPGA technologies. The result is a family of FPGA devices
that are small enough for the most space-constrained
applications, low enough power to operate in power-
constrained edge applications and priced for volume
deployment.
For the first time, the industry has access to a truly
reconfigurable device delivering zero risk, zero NRE and
fast time to innovation for mainstream high volume
applications. With device densities from 4K logic elements
up to 1M logic elements, Efinix has a device to meet the
specifics of your market, whether it be edge compute, IoT
and AI or industrial automation.
Delivering Tech Advantage for Revolutionizing System
Design Experience
As compute requirements of modern systems continue to
increase, designers are forced to adopt smaller and smaller
silicon process geometries. These come at an ever-
increasing cost, increased complexity, risk, and time to
market. These trends diverge from the requirement of
lower-cost solutions delivered to ever-shrinking market
windows with volatile feature requirements.
Efinix technology is truly disruptive in that designers can
now innovate in real-time without the years' long delays of
custom silicon design and fabrication. Its programs have
zero risk since they are essentially software-defined, and
once a feature set is defined, the solution is instantly ready
for mass volume deployment, that will change the way
systems are conceived, developed, and deployed. Efinix is
delivering a technology advantage that will revolutionize
the system design experience.
Efinix devices incorporate soft RISC-V processors that
allow hardware/software system partitioning in real-time.
System functionality can be rapidly expressed in software
and then progressively accelerated in custom hardware
accelerators on the same silicon to deliver hardware speed
with the convenience and time to market software.
A free accelerator framework ensures that the majority of a
hardware/software partitioned design is readily available to
the designer requiring a minimum of accelerator design to
achieve unprecedented hardware performance. The result is
low program risk and rapid time to market.

Sammy Cheung
Co-Founder, President and CEO
Eﬁnix
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|
November 2021

Delivering Unprecedented Computing Capability
Sammy states that the latest product family from Efinix is
Titanium. Fabricated in 16nm technology, Titanium delivers
unprecedented compute capability with ultra-low power
consumption. The exchangeable logic and routing (XLR)
cell at the heart of the Quantum Compute Fabric ensures
that designs are efficiently placed within the fabric
eliminating bottlenecks of compute or routing resources
that plague conventional FPGAs. The result is efficient
designs with high utilization ratios and high maximum
clock frequencies.
The system performance is augmented with Titanium's
custom-designed digital signal processing blocks specially
designed to accelerate AI algorithms. The efficiency of the
Titanium architecture coupled with the small 16nm process
geometry ensures that titanium devices have an extremely
small footprint. The Ti60 has 60,000 logic elements that can
be packaged in a wafer level chip scale package measuring
just 3.5mm x 3.4mm. Soft RISC-V processors augment the
embedded DSPs providing traditional software-based
control plane capability with dynamic software/hardware
partitioning in the FPGA fabric.
Offering Unmatched Servcies
Efinix FPGAs are the first to exhibit the compute and logic
density for today's complex systems in a small, low power
footprint and priced for mass deployment. For the first time,
customers can develop applications in the lab on Efinix
devices and deploy them in cost-effective mass-produced
solutions without redesigning them into low-cost design
alternatives. The low power of Efinix devices means that
they can be deployed at the edge without regard for thermal
control. Low power yet high compute density means that
end systems containing Efinix devices consume less power,
are less expensive to run and have longer product life cycles
without compromising system features and performance.
While other FPGA suppliers have either tailored their
offering towards the data center with the correspondingly
high cost and power consumption or lack the compute
density to absorb entire edge compute applications. Efinix
products provide the perfect mix of computing capability in
a cost-effective, low power footprint.
Empowering Diverse Work-Culture
Efinix is passionate about success through empowerment
and accountability. It believes that trust and respect for the
individual should be a fundamental belief and a cornerstone
of its productivity and success. Sammy believes that
innovation and success come from inclusion and diversity,
and it strives to make those key aspects of its everyday
activities.
In Efinix's interactions outside of the company, it strives to
create a culture of service-oriented customer focus and hold
itself accountable to uncompromising integrity in
everything it does.
Continuing to be More and More Compelling
Sammy states that in the larger scheme of things, the
pandemic has been a short yet extremely unfortunate blip.
The semiconductor markets will overcome the short-term
supply shortages that the industry is experiencing, and the
trends to smaller silicon process geometries and more
complex systems will resume. Efinix continues to position
Efinix's high-performance Titanium FPGAs are built on
a 16 nm process and feature an enhanced Quantum
fabric that is custom-tailored for the computing demands
of mainstream applications.
“
“

itself for the inevitable realization that a custom product
build from a cost-effective, reprogrammable, standard
product is the only solution that makes sense for 90 percent
of the world's applications.
Evolving Ground-breaking Technology
Efinix will continue to evolve its ground-breaking
technology beyond the current Titanium line. It will
continue to innovate in its RISC-V and Quantum
Acceleration initiatives driving ease of use for designers
eager to embrace the Efinix value proposition. It will see a
migration from expensive and high-risk custom silicon
programs to low-cost, fast-to-market solutions based around
Efinix reconfigurable standard products.
“As the world embraces AI technology and needs a high
compute performance, adaptable solution for cost-effective
edge deployment, we anticipate that Efinix will be at the
forefront,” concludes Sammy.
37
|
November 2021

ith actively being involved in the optical
Wcommunications/sensing field, Omega Optics
has developed an array of products by
conducting various research and developments to gain a
vantage position to pursue an aggressive commercialization
strategy.
Implementing technologies such as portable bio-sensing,
polymer-based planar lightwave circuits for EM-wave
sensing, chemical and biological sensing, and
nanophotonics for integrated photonic circuits are core
technologies of Omega Optics.
Ray T. Chen, the Founder and CTO of the company and a
chaired professor at the University of Texas, Austin,
demonstrates his experience with his extensive knowledge
and skill in Photolithography, Laser Physics, Lab-on-chip
Sensing, and Integrated Photonic Circuits (IPC). Strong
information technology professional with a Doctor of
Philosophy (Ph.D.) focused in Integrated Photonics and
Optoelectronics from the Department of Electrical
Engineering, The University of California. Ray Chen is a
Fellow of IEEE, Optica (OSA) and the international society
of optical engineering (SPIE). He has published over 1,000
research articles with 76 patents.
We at Insights Success came across Omega Optics in our
endeavor to find “The 10 Most Disruptive Companies in
Semiconductor Industry.” We talked with Ray to understand
the passionate focus on various aspects of his business.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Omega Optics is a company located in Austin, Texas. It is a
high-tech research firm focusing on silicon and III-V-based
photonic chips for various polymers, including
Omega Optics
Connecting the World

Ray T. Chen
Founder, and CTO
Omega Optics
41
|
November 2021

interconnects, computing, and biochemical sensing. We are
a silicon photonics IC design house with chips fabricated in
AIM, IMEC, Global foundry, and others. Our company has
~ 30 US patents covering RF photonics, Silicon lab-on-chip
biosensors, spectroscopy sensing, and optical computing.
of your customers.
We have an open platform. We have a lab-on-chip sensing
platform with TRL level 6 defined by NASA. It can be used
for COVID-19 biomarker detection using a silicon photonic
chip. It has a higher sensitivity without compromising
specificity. It is an open platform suitable for various
biomarker detections, including breast cancer, lung cancer,
and pancreatic cancer, and various antibiotics with
supporting patients and publications.
We built a portable biosensing system while the others,
such as Genalyte and GE, are desktop systems. We can
bring the bio-sensing system to the remote and primitive
areas. Namely, we can bring the hospital to the patients
instead of bringing the patients to the hospital. Also, due to
the unique patent portfolio, we can provide better sensing
sensitivity without compromising the specificity. Finally, it
is an lab-on-chip open sensing system suitable for all
biomarker detections.
“Omega Optics has
developed a family of
high performance,
reliable, low-cost and
portable products for
various applications in
optical sensing,
bio-sensing, and optical
communications.”

We have ~ 30 patents protecting our inventions. And we
will continue doing so to boost the valuation of the
company. Our dream is that in the future, the devices we
invented in our lab can appear in your living room to
significantly improve the quality of life. We plan to raise
private funding or also through early-stage IPO to raise
needed funding for commercialization.
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in
almost every sector. How are you leveraging
technological advancements to make your solutions
resourceful?
The patented lab-on-chip sensor on silicon platform has two
advantages:
1. The chip is made out of Silicon CMOS which is mass-
producible with cost-effectiveness.
2. The bio-sensing platform is an open platform suitable for
all kinds of biomarker detections. We have patents and
publications covering many biomarker detections already.
3. We are in the process of raising 10 million dollars from
strategic investors. If your channel has a connection, help
connect.
And how are you strategizing your company’s
It will continue booming since more state-of-the-art
systems will require silicon chips, both electronics, and
photonics, as the driving force. And the current shortage in
the supply chain of silicon chips for high tech industry is a
clear indication of the importance of the semiconductor
industry.
the community?
Provide quality silicon chip-based devices for lab-on-chip
sensing that is capable of improving the quality of life. It is
our goal to provide quality service to improve the life
longevity and security for the years to come.
Reports on Omega Optics COVID-19 detection on
various media:
Texas Local News Paper Daily Texans:
Mr. Chen said the device’s ability to detect viruses and
cancers in the early stages is important because it gives
patients and health professionals the ability to fight back
before it progresses to a late stage.
In UT university news announcement, Ray Chen said,
“Instead of having to bring people to hospitals, which isn’t
always doable in remote areas, we can bring the hospital to
the people.”
The research team has created a prototype of the diagnostic
platform with the goal of bringing it to market. The
researchers have worked on the platform for more than
seven years, and they compared their approach with other
cutting-edge testing techniques in a new paper published in
Applied Physics Review, co-written with researchers at
Austin-based Omega Optics, a startup founded by DOD,
DOE, NASA, NIH, NSF, NIST, EPA, and UT Austin that
makes photonics components.
Science Daily Optical techniques offer fast, efficient
COVID-19 detection: Without rapid point-of-care testing,
the pandemic will likely continue to evolve - ScienceDaily
News in America Institute of Physics.
CBS Evening News TV interview.
43
|
November 2021

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