Cadence Design System is the one-stop shop for proven design flows in multi-chipset design and advanced IC packaging. The Cadence 3D-IC solution provides 3D design planning, implementation, and system analysis in a single, unified cockpit. It enables hardware and software co-verification and full-system power analysis using emulation and prototyping and chipset-based PHY IP for connectivity with power, performance, and area (PPA) optimized for 
latency, bandwidth, and power.
Sakshi Jain, Sr. Sub Editor-ELE Times had an opportunity to interact with Channakeshav Ananth, Application Engineering Group Director, Cadence Design Systems. He talked about the 3D-IC solution in terms of time-to-market, design efficiency, and overall product performance. Excerpts.
ELE Times: Please provide an overview of Cadence Design Systems
Channakeshav Ananth: Established in 1988, Cadence Design Systems is a pivotal leader in computational software, delivering software, hardware, and IP that can be leveraged to turn design concepts into realities, catering to the most dynamic market applications.
With more than 35 years of experience, Cadence customers are the world’s most innovative companies, delivering extraordinary electronic products from chips to boards to complete systems for hyperscale computing, 5G communications, automotive, mobile, aerospace, consumer, industrial, and healthcare.
The company provides a comprehensive suite of the most integrated end-to-end design solutions to assist today’s electronic designers do create future products. Their product offerings encompass the following:
- Silicon design creation, simulation, implementation, and signoff of analog and digital circuits; off-the-shelf design IP; and IC packaging.
- System design and Multiphysics analysis of devices from chips up to smartphones and airplanes; PCB design; and safe and secure embedded software.
- Intelligence IP for design of inference processing in edge devices, and machine learning-enhanced tools and machine learning-enabled design flow.
Overall, Cadence has evolved to address key industry challenges and has formulated its Intelligent System Design™ strategy for delivering world-class computational software capabilities for the design of intelligent electronic systems.
ELE Times: What areas of expertise do Cadence Design Systems specialize in within the semiconductor and electronic design automation (EDA) industry?
Channakeshav Ananth: At its core, Cadence specializes in developing software tools and solutions that facilitate the design, verification, and manufacturing of complex integrated circuits (ICs) and electronic systems. Their expertise spans a wide range of areas within the semiconductor industry, including EDA software, system design and verification, digital IC design, custom IC design, verification solutions, design for manufacturing, and IP solutions.
- Analog and Digital IC Design: As a leader in custom, analog, RF, and mixed-signal design enablement, Cadence provides a complete solution starting with tools and methodologies that enable fast and accurate entry of design concepts all the way through verifying the designs before they are produced in silicon.
- System Verification: The Cadence Verification Suite supports the company’s Intelligent System Design strategy, which enables system and semiconductor companies to create complete, differentiated end products more efficiently.
- IC Packaging and PCB Design Cadence offer leading IC packaging and PCB design solutions for traditional and advanced 3D-IC solutions. Cadence IC packaging and cross-domain co-design automation provide efficient solutions in system-level co-design and advanced mixed-signal packaging, delivering automation and accuracy to expedite the design process.
- Multiphysics and CFD Analysis: The company offers electromagnetic interference (EMI), electromagnetic compliance (EMC), electrothermal, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools. These solutions include digital twin technology for data centre project management.
- Molecular Modeling and Biosimulation: Cadence offers molecular modelling and biosimulation software to improve drug discovery via industry-leading science, efficient algorithms, and cloud-native scalability
ELE Times: What are the key advantages of leveraging Cadence’s 3D-IC solution in terms of time-to-market, design efficiency, and overall product performance?
Channakeshav Ananth: The semiconductor industry is going through a notable shift as emerging technologies are driving the need for enhanced computing capabilities. To address these obstacles, the industry is increasingly focused on finding the right balance between density, integration, and functionality. Hence, semiconductor technology is now shifting towards heterogeneous integration, employing chipsets and 3D-IC architecture to achieve flexibility and optimized performance.
Cadence’s 3D-IC solution offers 3D design planning, implementation, and system analysis in a single, unified cockpit. It enables hardware and software co-verification and full-system power analysis using emulation and prototyping and chipset-based PHY IP for connectivity with power, performance, and area (PPA) optimized for latency, bandwidth, and power.
Additionally, the solution offers co-design capabilities with custom analog design and board design, integrated circuit (IC) signoff extraction, static timing analysis (STA) and sign-off with signal and power integrity (SI/PI), electromagnetic interference (EMI), and thermal analysis.
Some of the key advantages of 3D-ICs as compared to traditional SoC are:
- Cost reduction: 3D-IC technology ensures lower costs because all functionality, including analog and memory, does not need to move to advanced process nodes.
- High-Speed Interconnects: The technology excels in meeting high interconnect speeds and bandwidth requirements, which will reach >200Gbps for advanced memory technologies and SerDes.
- Miniaturization and saving space: 3D-ICs allow miniaturization, saving space on the board and in the end product. They can be ideal for extremely compact mobile devices.
- Power efficiency: 3D-ICs can reduce power because big drivers are no longer needed. A 3D stack can use small I/O drivers with lower power.
- Faster Performance: By reducing interconnects between packages, 3D-ICs enable faster performance and improved power profiles, leading to better overall system performance.
ELE Times: Please highlight Cadence’s vision and outlook for the future of chip design.
Channakeshav Ananth: India’s chip designing industry has experienced significant growth over the past decade, driven by a skilled workforce and the government’s support for innovation and entrepreneurship in the semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. Policies such as the National Policy on Electronics and the Design and Product Linked Initiatives have fostered a favourable environment for the industry. Major chip design multinational companies have established centers in India, and numerous systems companies have formed chip design groups.
Within this thriving landscape, Cadence Design Systems holds a strong vision and positive outlook for the chip designing industry. They envision a future where chip designs are propelled by innovation and address the evolving needs of technological advancements.
