Date: 07/06/2012

RF IC design solution from Integrand for GLOBALFOUNDRIES 40nm-LP technology

Integrand Software and GLOBALFOUNDRIES have announced the availability of RF IC design solution on GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 40nm-LP technology. GLOBALFOUNDRIES' RF solutions flow enables a designer to optimize inductors using Integrand's inductor synthesis tool the Optimum Inductor Finder (OIF). The flow works within the Cadence Virtuoso environment.

The OIF technology deployed by GLOBALFOUNDRIES was developed using Integrand's flagship EM simulator EMX and model generation tool Continuum. GLOBALFOUNDRIES has done verification of the models and confirmed that they show very close correspondence to Silicon measurements.

"We have been very happy to partner with and license our technology to GLOBALFOUNDRIES to provide greater capabilities to RF IC designers," said Dr. Sharad Kapur, president of Integrand Software Inc. "Integrand's EMX and Continuum software creates true scalable models for passive components like inductors. The associated OIF enables a designer to find optimal components in a matter of seconds without resorting to third-party synthesis tools or from list based search approached."

Integrand's OIF, a GUI-based analog synthesis tool, is now deployed within the PDK to allow GLOBALFOUNDRIES customers to enter their desired inductance and make trade-off decisions between maximum Q, minimum area. The Spice model parameters are geometric so as to allow EDA Layout Parasitic Extraction (LPE) tools to extract model parameters to do post layout simulation.

"GLOBALFOUNDRIES uses Integrand's EMX and Continuum to characterize and simulate passive devices. The tools facilitate virtual fabrication and automatic construction of accurate scalable inductor models with good model-to-hardware correlation. These inductor models are then integrated into an Optimum Inductor Finder (OIF) which is released through GLOBALFOUNDRIES' RF Design Kit. The OIF is well received by our customers as it offers circuit designers the flexibility to synthesize inductor design specific to their needs and we are delighted to have OIF as part of our comprehensive Design Kit offering for the 40nm-LP RFCMOS technology node." said Michael Cheng, senior director at GLOBALFOUNDRIES.