Keysight, Synopsys and Ansys Announce New RF Design Migration Process

●The new design flow builds on Synopsys' custom design family, Keysight's electromagnetic simulation platform, and Ansys device synthesis software to provide an efficient, integrated RF circuit redesign solution

●An open platform with best-in-class solutions accelerates the migration from existing N16 process passive RF devices to advanced N6RF+ technology nodes for better power, performance, and area benefits

Keysight Technologies, Inc., Synopsys (Nasdaq: SNPS) and Ansys (Nasdaq: ANSS) have jointly launched a new integrated radio frequency (RF) design migration flow to help TSMC upgrade from N16 to N6RF+ technology to meet the demanding power, performance, and area (PPA) requirements of today's wireless integrated circuit applications. The new migration process integrates millimeter wave (mmWave) and RF solutions from Sightsight, Synopsys and Ansys into an efficient design flow, simplifying the redesign process for passive components and optimizing component design to TSMC's more advanced RF processes.

Keysight, Synopsys, Ansys and TSMC N6RF+ process node provide RF design migration flow

This RF design migration solution extends TSMC's analog design transfer (ADM) approach to provide RF circuit designers with additional capabilities. For 2.4GHz low-noise amplifier (LNA) designs redirected to the N6RF+ process, Keysight, Synopsys, and Ansys' migration workflows can significantly reduce power consumption, in addition to the productivity gains provided by ADM.

The main components of the design migration process include:

●Synopsys 定制化设计系列,产品包括 Synopsys Custom Compiler™ 版图环境、用于快速模拟和射频设计迁移的 Synopsys ASO.ai™,以及 Synopsys PrimeSim™ 电路仿真器

●Keysight RFPro for device parameterization, automated numerical fitting, and electromagnetic (EM) simulation

●Ansys RaptorH™ for silicon-based electromigration analysis and VeloceRF™ for passive component synthesis

RF circuit designers can use this migration process to quickly redesign their devices to N6RF+ process specifications and accelerate time to market. Keysight's RFPro parameterizes passive components, including inductors, and automatically recreates highly accurate simulation models while adapting the layout to new processes. Designers can view device layouts recreated in Synopsys Custom Compiler and inductors synthesized with Ansys VeloceRF, then perform interactive EM analysis of complex wireless chips.

"To meet the industry's high expectations for superior results with TSMC's leading process technologies, it is critical to quickly migrate designs from one node to another," said Sanjay Bali, vice president of EDA Group for Strategy and Product Management at Synopsys. The new process leverages Synopsys' custom compilers, ASO.ai, and PrimeSim solutions to provide an integrated RF and analog design migration solution that enables rapid migration of designs from TSMC's N16 technology platform to the N6RF+ platform. By combining their best-in-class, trusted RF and mmWave solutions, Keysight, Synopsys and Ansys are able to provide mutual customers with an interoperable design flow that delivers significant productivity gains. ”

Niels Faché, vice president and general manager of Keysight's EDA Group, said, "Complying with new process design rules while meeting PPA requirements is one of the major challenges of complex RF chip designs. RF circuit designers want to be able to reuse their intellectual property library of N16 devices and components to increase their return on investment (ROI). This new process facilitates the rapid redesign of existing components originally designed with N16 using the new TSMC N6RF+ technology. Keysight's RFPro enables circuit designers to easily perform device parameterization, generate new simulation models, and perform interactive electromagnetic analysis in the Synopsys custom compiler layout environment. This eliminates the need for time-consuming data handover or domain specialization, significantly increasing the overall engineering productivity of RF circuit designers. ”

"Electromagnetic simulation and modeling play a central role in developing predictive and accurate solutions for RF, high-speed simulation, HPC data transmission, 3DIC interconnect and co-packaged optics," said John Lee, vice president and general manager of the Semiconductor, Electronics and Optics business unit at Ansys. "We are proud to partner with Keysight, Synopsys and TSMC, as it gives Ansys the flexibility to solve a wide range of challenging challenges in today's fast-moving, dynamic market." Through this open platform with many best-in-class solutions, our mutual customers will benefit from it and achieve better product outcomes. ”

"We are very pleased with our recent collaboration with Ansys, Keysight and Synopsys, which provides our mutual customers with an efficient path to migrate their designs to more advanced processes and ensure they meet stringent PPA requirements," said Dan Kochpatcharin, director of the Design Infrastructure Management Division at Taiji. We will also continue to work closely with our Open Innovation Platform ® (OIP) ecosystem partners to ensure that our customers' next-generation designs continue to benefit from our technology-leading, performance-enhanced solutions." ”

(Liu Liqing)