Alps Alpine Selects Siemens’ Symphony Platform to Verify its Newest Mixed-signal Capacitance Detection IC

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Siemens Digital Industries Software has announced that Alps Alpine, a leading manufacturer of electronic components and in-vehicle information devices, used Siemens’ Symphony platform for mixed-signal applications when developing and verifying its newest, functionally safe capacitance detection integrated circuit (IC). Alps Alpine’s new offering enables proximity, touch, and spatial gesture detection across a wide range of human-machine interface systems in demanding applications such as the automotive and smart device spaces.

Using Siemens’ Symphony platform, Alps Alpine quickly achieved silicon accurate simulation for its touch detection IC, increasing functional verification productivity by 5x. This reduction of verification cycles facilitated rapid attainment of time-to-market goals for the customer.

"A major feature of our latest IC is the use of absolute self-capacitance detection to achieve outstanding high sensitivity and noise resistance performance," said Akihisa Iikura, IC design manager for Alps Alpine. "As a manufacturer of in-vehicle electrical components, we are required to comply with the ISO26262 functional safety standard, and the semiconductors we use must additionally comply with aggressive Automotive Safety Integrity Level-B (ASIL-B) requirements. Siemens’ Symphony platform helped us to rapidly and successfully design and verify our design’s complex operations and functionality. The Symphony platform’s exceptional performance, together with its user-friendly interface, led to greater adoption among our verification teams, ultimately resulting in a 5x increase in productivity.“

Alps Alpine has a track record of more than 20 years in semiconductor design, and the company has mass-produced billions of units over that timeframe.

Powered by Siemens' Analog FastSPICE platform, the Symphony platform provides a seamless combination of foundry-certified circuit simulators and industry-standard HDL simulators for efficient and precise verification of complex nanometer-scale mixed-signal ICs. Its modular design leverages Siemens’ Analog FastSPICE platform for exceptional speed and accuracy in mixed-signal simulation and its compatibility with leading digital solvers, such as the functional verification engine of Siemens’ Questa™ platform, extends debug productivity.

"The need for high-sensitivity capacitive sensing technology is becoming critical in many human-machine interface applications, and mixed-signal innovations such as Alps Alpine’s capacitance detection solutions are critical to meet those requirements," said Amit Gupta, vice president and general manager for the Custom IC Verification Division at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “We are pleased that our Analog FastSPICE and Symphony platforms played a key role in Alps Alpine’s development of its latest mixed-signal, functional safety standard compliant capacitance detection IC design.”