Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) today announced that its custom and analog/mixed-signal (AMS) IC design flow has achieved certification for Samsung Foundry’s 5nm Low-Power Early (5LPE) process technology. This certification ensures mutual customers of Cadence and Samsung Foundry have immediate access to a highly automated circuit design, layout, signoff and verification flow needed to design efficiently at 5LPE.
The automated Cadence® custom and AMS full flow supports the company’s Intelligent System Design™ strategy, enabling SoC design excellence. For more information on the Cadence custom and AMS flow that supports the Samsung 5LPE process technology, visit www.cadence.com/go/Samsung5LPE.
The certified Cadence custom and AMS flow enables customers to develop their solutions using the 5LPE process for automotive, mobile, data center, artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging applications. The tools in the flow incorporate key features that are well suited for digitally assisted analog designs such as high performance, best-in-class analysis and verification capabilities developed in the Cadence Spectre® Accelerated Parallel Simulator (APS). Additionally, the Cadence Virtuoso® Layout flow provides a high level of automation and integration, enabling faster design closure with reduced numbers of iterations critical for completing complex designs at the 5LPE process.
The complete custom and AMS flow that is certified by Samsung Foundry includes the Virtuoso Analog Design Environment (ADE), Virtuoso Schematic Editor, Virtuoso Layout Suite, Virtuoso Space-Based Router, Virtuoso Layout Suite EAD, Virtuoso Integrated Physical Verification System, Spectre APS, Voltus™-Fi Custom Power Integrity Solution, Quantus™ Extraction Solution, Litho Physical Analyzer (LPA), LDE Electrical Analyzer (LEA) and Physical Verification System (PVS). Key technical capabilities include:
- Circuit Design and Verification: Allows users to perform static and dynamic circuit checks, DC/TRAN/AC/STB corner simulation, transient noise simulation, Monte Carlo simulation and high-yield estimation, electromigration and IR (EM-IR) analysis, PSS-Pnoise and reliability analysis
- Custom Analog and Digital Layout: Offers users a schematic-driven layout, automated constraint-driven pin-placement and optimization, row-based device placement, layout-dependent effects (LDE) analysis and hotspot detection, automated routing with width spacing patterns (WSP) and pin-to-trunk features, electrically aware design (EAD) for reduced iterations in achieving electrically correct designs, in-design DRC verification using signoff deck and automated digital block implementation
- Physical Verification and Signoff: Enables parasitic extraction, custom constraint validation, post-layout simulation with Detailed Standard Parasitic Format (DSPF), full-chip DRC and layout versus schematic (LVS) signoff and design for manufacturing (DFM) pattern-matching checks for detecting and correcting litho hotspots and improving yields
In addition to the custom and AMS flow certification, a process design kit (PDK) techfile is now Mixed-Signal Open Access-ready, allowing customers to use the highly integrated Virtuoso-Innovus™ Implementation System flow. This enables users to create a layout, and to perform static timing analysis and signoff for mixed-signal designs more effectively and in a shorter amount of time.
“We’ve validated that the entire Cadence AMS flow meets our requirements for designing at 5LPE technology,” said Jongshin Shin, vice president of Foundry IP Development Team at Samsung Electronics. “This high-performance flow represents a major milestone in our ongoing collaboration. With the Cadence flow now readily available, customers have access to advanced capabilities needed to design applications more efficiently, while meeting rigorous market requirements.”
“In collaboration with Samsung, we’ve achieved certification for our integrated flow for AMS design at 5LPE to drive the advancement of next-generation designs,” said Wilbur Luo, vice president, product management in the Custom IC and PCB Group at Cadence. “Based on the industry-leading Virtuoso and Spectre platforms, the flow enables highly efficient design of AMS IP at this advanced node for use in complex SoCs for mobile, data center and AI applications.”