New Reverse Engineering Service Helps Chip Makers Remain Competitive and Monitors Patent Infringements

OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ICmasters has launched a new reverse engineering service called ClearView that analyses silicon chips so semiconductor designers can better understand their competitors' application processor designs.

"Since silicon chips represent billions of dollars of investment, to understand the technical decisions your competitor has made is vital," said ICmasters president Gary Tomkins.

It provides semiconductor competitive intelligence. Clients can keep up with trends or identify new technologies that could lead to new products, innovations, and marketing opportunities.

Potential customers include any semiconductor operating company using large blocks of digital circuitry that wants to better understand how the biggest names in the business are designing chips.

"We produce several reports delivered over the year that focus on the release of major application processors. We do a complete analysis immediately upon the release of the chip," said Tomkins. 

Recently, they analyzed the Apple A14 Bionic application processor. It's only 88 square millimeters and 10 percent smaller than the previous Apple A13 chip but 16 percent faster and the number of transistors increased from 8.5 billion to 11.8 billion.

It's used in the new iPad Air, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, and iPhone 12 Mini. For the full reverse engineering analysis, click ICmasters ClearView.

"We do the analysis by removing and exposing the interior of the chip with a variety of mechanical and chemical deprocessing or delayering methods in the lab. Then we use visible light and scanning electron microscope techniques to take high-resolution images and measurements of the chip," said Tomkins.

Although the subscription service is a first for ICmasters, Tomkins and his team were the first to introduce reverse engineering subscriptions back in 2009 as a new way of delivering competitive intelligence in the semiconductor industry. Now they're back with this new service focused on leading application processors.

An integrated circuit device is made up of many layers. The bottom layers are active silicon, where transistors are found. Several upper layers composed of metal wires connect transistors into digital and analog circuitry enabling the various functions designed into the chip.

ICmasters removes all the metal layers in the lab, exposing the transistor layer. This allows them to take high-resolution images of the physical transistor layout.

This shows how the logic cell libraries are designed and interact with the critical process design rules, giving measurements of logic cell layout, minimum pitches, memory cell sizes, etc.

The company also analyzes the overall die circuit design architecture, called the floorplan. This is done by looking at the die layout of the application processor (the floorplan) and identifying the amount of die real estate used for different circuit functions.

ICmasters also uses these same techniques to help law firms and patent holders monitor chips for patent infringement and produce evidence of use and claim charts in the context of intellectual property monetization.

Since its founding, the company has completed numerous evidence of use claim charts for clients across North America, Europe and Asia. ICmasters was established in 2017 by industry veterans to offer world-class patent portfolio optimization and competitive benchmarking services.

The company helps global semiconductor operating companies, renowned IP law firms, and other owners of semiconductor IP get the most value from their technology assets.

For further information or to schedule an interview, contact Christopher Young at (613) 869-6478 or email [email protected]

SOURCE ICmasters