Smart mobile SoCs driving the semiconductor industry: Technology trend, challenges and opportunities

The explosive growth of smart mobile wireless devices in recent years has fundamentally transformed the semiconductor industry. Mobile system-on-chips (SoCs) has become the leading product driver for technology definition and manufacturing for the semiconductor industry. This trend was first observed in 28 nm and will continue for 20 nm, 16/14 nm, and 10 nm adoption and production ramp. Recent mobile SoC performance increase was achieved mainly through silicon technology scaling, and from single to dual- and quad-core. For mobile SoCs to continue offering new and exciting user-experiences, and longer battery life, a holistic approach in orthogonal system scaling to break out of the box of (speed*density/power/cost) constrains is mandated. Examples in the new paradigm of mobile heterogeneous computing are: energy-efficient transistors/memories/interconnects in expanding and boosting existing SoC functionalities (e.g., SiGe/III-V FinFET, GAA-FET, TFET, and RRAM/MRAM etc.), all-inclusive technology/design co-optimization to extract more values from silicon tech, RFFE system integration, and the multi-die integration by system partitioning that allows each component to be optimized and integrated closely together for lower cost and power, higher performance, and reduced form factor. Numerous challenges are ahead yet tremendous opportunities exist for collaborative and multiplicative innovations in the industry to enable the continued growth of mobile SoCs.