Driving Innovation: Direct Imaging vs. Conventional Exposure
It’s Only Common Sense: Selling to Today's Generation of Buyers
Dan’s Biz Bookshelf: ‘Believe in Better'
IRIS Switzerland Adopts Silvaco TCAD Software for Autonomous Driving Applications
November 24, 2020 | Business WireEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Silvaco Inc., a leading supplier of EDA software and design IP, announced that IRIS Switzerland has adopted Silvaco TCAD simulation software to prove the fabrication feasibility of a short-wave infrared single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) targeted for use in autonomous driving applications.
IRIS Switzerland develops and builds mid- and long-range short-wave infrared (SWIR) detectors and flash LiDARs that are primarily used in autonomous driving applications. Silvaco TCAD simulation software was chosen to accelerate the development of SPAD products with a systematic view of all device parameters to be analyzed. The simulations of the SPAD enabled the optimization of the device structure to deliver the best photodiode performance.
The SPAD structure makes use of two different semiconductor materials to absorb light and generate an electrical avalanche to amplify the signal. In the device, germanium-tin alloy is the absorption material and silicon is the multiplier material. TCAD simulations were performed with different doping and thicknesses of layers to extract an optimized electric field profile. The simulations gave valuable insights on thermoelectric cooling requirements early in the SPAD development to achieve an optimized Peltier cooling system in the first fabricated photodiode.
“IRIS Switzerland is a start-up company developing safe and reliable detectors for autonomous driving which can sense and avoid obstacles, even in adverse climate or low-light conditions,” said Claude Meylan, IRIS Switzerland chairman and CEO. “To develop our breakthrough technology requires a comprehensive understanding and analysis of the semiconductor material physics and properties. Silvaco TCAD software has enabled us to choose the right design parameters, allowing us early success in developing our new short-wave infrared detection and ranging systems.”
"TCAD simulation is the key to early success in the design and development of new semiconductor devices,” said Eric Guichard, vice president and general manager of Silvaco’s TCAD Division. “The success of IRIS Switzerland demonstrates the benefits of using Silvaco’s comprehensive TCAD solutions for creating new breakthrough designs.”
Share on:
Suggested Items
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
06/06/2025 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007Maybe you’ve noticed that I’ve been taking to social media lately to about my five must-reads of the week. It’s just another way we’re sharing our curated content with you. I pay special attention to what’s happening in our industry, and I can help you know what’s most important to read about each week. Follow me (and I-Connect007) on LinkedIn to see these and other updates.
INEMI Interim Report: Interconnection Modeling and Simulation Results for Low-Temp Materials in First-Level Interconnect
05/30/2025 | iNEMIOne of the greatest challenges of integrating different types of silicon, memory, and other extended processing units (XPUs) in a single package is in attaching these various types of chips in a reliable way.
Siemens Leverages AI to Close Industry’s IC Verification Productivity Gap in New Questa One Smart Verification Solution
05/13/2025 | SiemensSiemens Digital Industries Software announced the Questa™ One smart verification software portfolio, combining connectivity, a data driven approach and scalability with AI to push the boundaries of the Integrated Circuit (IC) verification process and make engineering teams more productive.
Cadence Unveils Millennium M2000 Supercomputer with NVIDIA Blackwell Systems
05/08/2025 | Cadence Design SystemsAt its annual flagship user event, CadenceLIVE Silicon Valley 2025, Cadence announced a major expansion of its Cadence® Millennium™ Enterprise Platform with the introduction of the new Millennium M2000 Supercomputer featuring NVIDIA Blackwell systems, which delivers AI-accelerated simulation at unprecedented speed and scale across engineering and drug design workloads.
DARPA Selects Cerebras to Deliver Next Generation, Real-Time Compute Platform for Advanced Military and Commercial Applications
04/08/2025 | RanovusCerebras Systems, the pioneer in accelerating generative AI, has been awarded a new contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), for the development of a state-of-the-art high-performance computing system. The Cerebras system will combine the power of Cerebras’ wafer scale technology and Ranovus’ wafer scale co-packaged optics to deliver several orders of magnitude better compute performance at a fraction of the power draw.