Catalog of SIP Cores
System on Chip design resources
System on Chip design resources
September 7, 2026 -
By Diego de Azcuénaga
As the demand for custom AI ASICs and HPC hits unprecedented levels, electronic design engineers are facing a severe, multi-faceted roadblock: thermal management at the semiconductor and system level.
As deep learning architectures demand higher computational density, ASICs optimised for AI are reaching unprecedented thermal power densities that challenge the traditional laws of semiconductor physics.
Conventional cooling approaches at the chassis level are no longer sufficient to mitigate the localised hotspots that degrade performance and shorten chip lifespans.
For electronic design engineers, thermal management has shifted from a post-design packaging consideration to a primary constraint dictated at the earliest stages of silicon architecture. In this feature we explore how 2.5D and 3D advanced packaging techniques, innovative thermal interface materials, and electro-thermal co-design are reshaping AI hardware to break through this looming thermal barrier.