Siemens Collaborates with TSMC to Accelerate 3D IC and AI-driven Circuit and Systems Design

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At the 2025 TSMC North America Open Innovation Platform® (OIP) Ecosystem Forum, Siemens Digital Industries Software announced multiple new collaborations with TSMC, including product certifications and innovative design solutions enablement initiatives for the foundry’s newest and most advanced process technologies. Mutual customers can now leverage these advancements, which include substantial innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), 3D IC design, and advanced packaging, to develop compelling and highly differentiated new products.

“Our longstanding relationship with TSMC underscores the transformative power of collaborative innovation,” said Mike Ellow, CEO, Siemens EDA, Siemens Digital Industries Software. “By combining Siemens’ leading IC and advanced packaging solutions with TSMC’s state-of-the-art process technologies, we enable our mutual customers to achieve new levels of design innovation and faster time-to-market, reshaping the future of semiconductor development.”

“The collaboration with Siemens illustrates our persistent focus to enable our shared customers for the latest and most advanced process and packaging technologies,” said Aveek Sarkar, Director of the Ecosystem and Alliance Management Division at TSMC. “EDA solutions from our OIP partners have significantly contributed to advancing energy-efficient AI chip innovation, and TSMC will continue working with our ecosystem to enable the rapid proliferation of AI through collaborative efforts.”

New collaborations and technology enablement readiness updates include:

AI-focused collaboration with TSMC successfully evaluated Design Rule Check (DRC) productivity improvements using Calibre® Vision AI software. This AI-driven initiative to analyze and prioritize DRC violations demonstrated clear enhancements in debugging efficiency, and the results were jointly validated.

Calibre® nmPlatform software suite is certified for TSMC’s advanced processes: Calibre nmDRC, Calibre nmLVS, Calibre PERC™, and Calibre xACT software are all certified for TSMC’s advanced N3C, N2P, and A16TM process technologies, enabling mutual customers to continue accessing Siemens’ industry-leading signoff technology.

Siemens and TSMC have teamed up to certify Siemens’ Solido Simulation Suite software for SPICE accuracy in TSMC’s N3C, N2P, and A16 process technologies, enabling customers to create and reliably verify analog, mixed-signal, RF, standard cell, and memory designs using advanced TSMC nodes. This collaboration expands into TSMC’s custom design reference flow (CDRF) on its A16 process, as Siemens’ Solido Simulation Suite software supports Reliability Aware Simulation technology, which addresses IC aging, real-time self-heating, and Safe Operation Area (SOA) checks. Further, TSMC’s CDRF for its A16 process incorporates Siemens’ Solido Design Environment software for advanced variation-aware verification, enhancing design sensitivity and automated cell optimization.

Siemens is collaborating with TSMC to certify its Aprisa™ software for TSMC’s N2P process. The implementation flow has been validated to meet N2P requirements across placement, routing, chip finishing and engineering change orders (ECOs), with ongoing efforts focused on optimizing performance, power, and area (PPA). This work is aimed at helping customers accelerate design closure and achieve better results on their next-generation designs.

Siemens and TSMC have established major milestones for 3D IC and enabled design flow for TSMC Compact Universal Photonic Engine (TSMC-COUPE™) technology. Siemens’ Calibre® 3DSTACK Advanced software is now certified for targeted physical verification solutions while Calibre® 3DThermal software is now certified for static thermal analysis of designs based on TSMC 3DFabric® technologies. Siemens’ Calibre 3DThermal software combines the strengths of Calibre technology for detailed chip level analysis, together with the thermal analysis of Siemens’ Simcenter™ Flotherm™ software, all of which provide the visibility into thermal impacts throughout the entire design flow and ecosystem. Additionally, Siemens tools have been enabled to support customers to design using TSMC-COUPETM technology. The companies’ joint activity on silicon photonics includes flow development using Siemens’ Innovator3D IC™ software, Calibre 3DSTACK software, L-Edit software, Solido Simulation Suite software, Calibre xACT™ software and Calibre Interactive software for design, implementation and verification of TSMC’s COUPE technology. Innovator3D IC is enabled for supporting the 3Dblox language format across abstraction levels and Siemens is working to achieve certification for other advanced requirements as 3Dblox continues its transition to become an IEEE standard. 

As part of TSMC’s cloud-based initiative, Siemens and TSMC have successfully demonstrated Solido Simulation Suite software, Calibre nmDRC software, and Calibre PERC software running in the AWS Cloud. Intended for toolsets qualified under TSMC’s N2 Certification, this initiative demonstrates tool accuracy and job parallelism across cloud computing infrastructure, focused on optimizing time to tape-out.