DALL-E Prototyping Is Not A Production Scaling a semiconductor design from prototype to production is where promising ideas meet harsh reality. A prototype demonstrates feasibility and shows that a concept can work under controlled conditions but is not a finished product. Many teams celebrate the first silicon success, only to realize later that this milestone marks the beginning of the journey to market, not the end. The challenges of scaling are often underestimated. At advanced nodes, a single complete mask set can cost upward of a million dollars. A seemingly minor design change, such as adjusting a clock buffer or modifying a pin assignment, can require a complete mask revision and push schedules back by several weeks. On the other hand, custom test boards, essential for silicon […]