Optimizing Analog For Power At Advanced Nodes


As any engineering manager will tell you, analog and digital engineers seem like they could be from different planets. While this has changed somewhat over time, [getkc id="52" comment="analog"] is still something of a mystery to many in [getkc id="81" kc_name="SoC"] design teams. Throw power management into the mix and things really get interesting. Improvements in analog/mixed-signal tools... » read more

Verification Planning And Requirement Tracking For Analog Design


Verifying designs to meet all specifications across all process corners has become an intractable problem from the perspective of debugging, managing, tracking, and meeting verification goals. Implementing a CDV methodology for analog designs can evolve analog design and verification to a standard process-based method that can be tracked and its progress measured. This paper aims to extend comm... » read more

IoT Brings Low Power To Forefront


Low power has become a primary design consideration over the past decade, driven by consumer portable devices packing in greater amounts of processing power and sophisticated communications, while at the same time providing extended battery life even though developments in battery technology have advanced little in the same timeframe. But the [getkc id="76" comment="Internet of Things"] (IoT) w... » read more

A Novel Approach To Dummy Fill For Analog Designs


With small geometry silicon processes, additional nonfunctional geometric structures are required to maintain layer planarity during the chemical/mechanical polishing (CMP) phase of processing. The automated layout flows to generate such geometries tend to be designed primarily for large system on chip (SOC) digital designs. When applied to mixed-signal layouts, these flows have been seen to ha... » read more

Five Disruptive Test Technologies


For years, test has been a critical part of the IC manufacturing flow. Chipmakers, OSATs and the test houses buy the latest testers and design-for-test (DFT) software tools in the market and for good reason. A plethora of unwanted field returns is not acceptable in today’s market. The next wave of complex chips may require more test coverage and test times. That could translate into higher... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Tools Mentor Graphics rolled out embedded Linux software for AMD’s x86 G-series SoCs, code-named Steppe Eagle and its Crowned Eagle CPUs. Ansys-Apache and TowerJazz have created a power noise and reliability signoff design kit, including reference flow guidelines, test case examples and flow setup guidance. Synopsys updated its verification portfolio with static and formal tools for CD... » read more

Extending UVM To Analog


As SoC complexity has grown, so too has the need to model the analog/mixed-signal content in a similar way as the digital content to make simulation easier. One way to do this is within the context of the Universal Verification Methodology (UVM). In fact, this can and is being done today with UVM as it stands, according to a number of industry sources. However, there is also growing interest... » read more

Pain Management


In part one of this series, the focus was on overlapping and new pain points in the semiconductor flow, from initial conception of what needs to be in a chip all the way through to manufacturing. Part two looks at how companies are attempting to manage that pain. It’s no secret that [getkc id="81" kc_name="SoC"]s are getting more complicated to design, debug and build, but the complexity i... » read more

Five Key Challenges In Designing With High-Speed Analog IP


There’s good reason why analog IC design is often considered to be more of an art than a science. Compared to their digital counterparts, analog components are much more sensitive to noise, distortion, and other errors. This white paper is filled with tips on meeting these challenges and speeding up your design cycle. To download this paper, click here. » read more

Does It Take A Catastrophe?


What makes a company search for new verification methods and tools? Sometimes organizations change, proactively, because they are wise and want to avoid problems; but sadly, more often it is a catastrophe that forces change. This was the case with a large U.S. supplier of safety-critical and high-reliability ICs. After a failed chip, it finally moved from simply verifying the analog and digi... » read more

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