The Hardware Podcast with Fexingo: Chips, Devices, and Electronics Engineering Conversations cover art

The Hardware Podcast with Fexingo: Chips, Devices, and Electronics Engineering Conversations

The Hardware Podcast with Fexingo: Chips, Devices, and Electronics Engineering Conversations

Written by: Fexingo
Listen for free

Lucas and Luna sit down at a lab bench cluttered with oscilloscopes and prototype boards to talk about the engineering decisions that shape the chips powering modern life. Each episode takes one piece of hardware — a new RISC-V core, a GaN power amplifier, a MEMS accelerometer — and examines its design trade-offs, yield challenges, and market positioning. They discuss why Intel’s 20A node matters for foundry customers, how TSMC’s CoWoS packaging affects AI accelerator supply, and what the CHIPS Act subsidies mean for domestic fab construction. Lucas brings the component-level knowledge (threshold voltages, die sizes, lithography steps); Luna pushes on the system-level implications (thermal constraints, software compatibility, supply chain risk). The listener is someone who reads datasheets for fun, follows EDA tool announcements, or needs to decide between an FPGA and an ASIC for their next product. No hot takes on Apple’s latest chip — just a careful look at what the die shot reveals and whether the architecture will trickle down to mid-range devices. Can a country really onshore advanced semiconductor manufacturing in a decade? How do you test a chip with billions of transistors? And what does the shift to chiplets mean for the engineer designing a PCB today? #SemiconductorIndustry #ChipDesign #HardwareEngineering #Electronics #TSMC #Intel #RISCV #GaN #MEMS #EDA #ASIC #FPGA #CHIPSAct #DieShot #EngineeringConversations #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo© 2026 Fexingo. All rights reserved. Economics
Episodes
  • How Gallium Nitride Is Rewriting the Power Chip Playbook

    How Gallium Nitride Is Rewriting the Power Chip Playbook
    May 29 2026
    Episode 18 of The Hardware Podcast explores gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors — the material quietly replacing silicon in chargers, data centers, and electric vehicles. Lucas and Luna unpack why GaN switches faster and wastes less heat than traditional silicon MOSFETs, using a concrete example: a 65-watt USB-C charger that shrank from a brick to a deck of cards. They discuss the physics advantage — wider bandgap, higher critical field — and the real-world friction: manufacturing yield, substrate cost, and the slow pace of ecosystem adoption. Listener support via buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo keeps the show ad-free. #GalliumNitride #GaN #PowerSemiconductors #WideBandgap #ChargingTech #USB-C #DataCenterEfficiency #ElectricVehicles #SiliconCarbide #MOSFET #Transistor #Hardware #Technology #Engineering #SemiconductorMaterials #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #TheHardwarePodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    Show More Show Less
    11 mins
  • The Quiet Struggle of Chip Material Science

    The Quiet Struggle of Chip Material Science
    May 28 2026
    Episode 17 of The Hardware Podcast dives into the unsung hero of semiconductor advancement: material science. Lucas and Luna explore how the industry is moving beyond silicon, focusing on high-NA EUV lithography and the search for next-gen channel materials like 2D materials. They discuss why the industry hit a wall with traditional scaling and how innovations like gate-all-around transistors and backside power delivery are keeping Moore's Law alive. A key case study: the shift from finFET to nanosheet transistors at 3nm and the material challenges that forced foundries to adopt new deposition techniques. The episode also touches on the economic calculus—why a single EUV tool costs $400 million and how that shapes the chip landscape. No hype, just the real engineering trade-offs. #Semiconductor #MaterialScience #ChipManufacturing #EUVLithography #Moore'sLaw #Nanotechnology #Engineering #Technology #HardwarePodcast #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #LucasAndLuna #ChipDesign #Transistor #GateAllAround #2DMaterials #BacksidePowerDelivery #HighNAEUV Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    Show More Show Less
    11 mins
  • The Hidden Skill Behind Every Chip Design

    The Hidden Skill Behind Every Chip Design
    May 28 2026
    When we think about chip design, we usually think about circuit schematics, logic gates, and cutting-edge lithography. But there's a less glamorous skill that determines whether a chip actually works: floorplanning. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how chip floorplanning - the physical arrangement of billions of transistors on a sliver of silicon - has become one of the most critical and costly bottlenecks in modern semiconductor design. They look at a specific case: a 2024 server chip from AMD where poor floorplanning forced a respin that cost $150 million and delayed the product by six months. They also discuss why floorplanning is becoming harder as chips transition to 3D stacking and chiplets, and how startups like Lightmatter are trying to automate this process with AI. Listeners will learn why the shape of a data path or the placement of a cache block can make or break a chip's performance, power, and time to market. #ChipFloorplanning #SemiconductorDesign #AMDChipRespin #3DStacking #ChipletArchitecture #AIinChipDesign #Lightmatter #VLSI #EDAsoftware #Semiconductor #HardwareEngineering #Technology #Fexingo #BusinessPodcast #HardwarePodcast #ChipDesign Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
    Show More Show Less
    8 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
No reviews yet