Cadence Design Systems, Inc.today announced that Phison Electronics Corporation has used the Cadence® Voltus™-Fi Custom Power Integrity Solution to achieve silicon-proven accuracy on electromigration and IR-drop (EMIR) checks for its most advanced flash controller chips. With the Voltus-Fi Custom Power Integrity Solution, Phison reduced its tapeout schedule by eight weeks, improving time to market by 40 percent while also increasing overall product reliability.
The Voltus-Fi Custom Power Integrity Solution is a transistor-level EMIR tool that delivers foundry-certified SPICE-level accuracy in power signoff. For more information, please visit http://www.cadence.com/products/mfg/voltus-fi/.
The Phison design team delivered three proven silicon designs in 12 months by coupling the Voltus-Fi Custom Power Integrity Solution with the Virtuoso® custom design platform, which includes Cadence Spectre® Circuit Simulator and Quantus™ QRC Extraction Solution. The powerful, easy-to-use Cadence tool suite provided the design team with circuit simulation and layout EMIR analysis, debugging and fixing to improve overall design productivity.
"As we are moving to more advanced flash memory controllers, we have developed a unique circuit architecture that demonstrates our expertise in analog and custom memory IP to derive higher performance and larger capacity," said Aw Yong Chee Kong, president at Phison Electronics. "Using a low-power design methodology and maintaining power-grid integrity have become critical design requirements for signoff, especially at lower process nodes. By incorporating the Cadence Voltus-Fi Custom Power Integrity Solution into our design flow, Phison engineers have been able to find design weaknesses such as potential voltage drop and electromigration failures, preventing costly silicon re-spins."
"Analog mixed-signal designs inherently present challenges with EMIR analysis, and Voltus-Fi Custom Power Integrity Solution addresses these design areas," said Dr. Anirudh Devgan, senior vice president and general manager of the Digital and Signoff Group at Cadence. "By working very closely with Phison Electronics since we first launched Voltus-Fi last year, we've seen the company achieve better performance in simulation and visualization that enabled them to successfully deliver three reliable, silicon-proven designs with much shorter turnaround times."
