Cadence Unveils Clarity 3D Solver for System Analysis and Design

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Cadence Design Systems has entered the fast-growing system analysis and design market with the announcement of the Cadence Clarity 3D Solver, which delivers gold-standard accuracy with up to 10X faster simulation performance and unbounded capacity compared to legacy field solver technology. Harnessing state-of-the-art distributed multiprocessing technology, the Clarity 3D Solver efficiently tackles electromagnetic (EM) challenges encountered when designing complex 3D structures on chips, packages, PCBs, connectors and cables—bringing true 3D analysis to any engineer with desktop, high-performance computing (HPC) or cloud computing resources. The Clarity 3D Solver easily reads design data from all standard chip, IC package and PCB implementation platforms while also providing unique integration benefits for design teams using the Cadence Allegro and Virtuoso implementation platforms.

Highly complex structures found in silicon interposers, rigid-flex PCBs and stacked-die IC packages must be modeled accurately in 3D for structure optimization and high-speed signaling compliance. High-speed signaling, such as in 112G serializer/deserializer (SerDes) interfaces, relies on high-fidelity interconnect design. Any slight change in impedance can negatively impact bit error rate, so optimization entails extensive research including dozens of complex extractions and simulations. To accommodate this workload, legacy field solvers must run on massive, expensive high-performance servers. In addition, speed and capacity limitations of legacy field solver technology require users to carefully simplify and/or partition the structure into smaller segments to fit within local computing constraints. This pseudo-3D approach creates the risk that the resulting final model may contain inaccuracies due to artificial effects from the superficial model boundaries.

Clarity 3D Solver technology addresses the most complex EM challenges faced when designing systems for 5G communications, automotive/ADAS, HPC and IoT applications. Industry-leading Cadence distributed multiprocessing technology enables the Clarity 3D Solver to deliver virtually unlimited capacity and a 10X speed up required to efficiently and effectively address these larger and more complex structures. The Clarity 3D Solver creates highly accurate S-parameter models for use in signal integrity (SI), power integrity (PI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) analysis, enabling simulation results that match lab measurement.

The Clarity 3D Solver is optimized to distribute a job across multiple low-cost computers while remaining equally efficient when running on a more powerful and expensive server with terabytes of memory. A unique distributed adaptive meshing approach and significantly smaller memory requirements than legacy 3D field solvers enable the Clarity 3D Solver to extensively utilize cost-effective cloud and on-premises distributed computing. These advantages make the cloud-ready Clarity 3D Solver an ideal choice to optimize a company’s cloud computing budget.

Using the Clarity 3D Solver in conjunction with the Cadence Sigrity™ 3D Workbench, users can merge mechanical structures such as cables and connectors with their system design and model the electrical-mechanical interconnect as a single model. The Clarity 3D Solver is also tightly integrated with the Virtuoso, Cadence SiP Layout and Allegro implementation platforms, enabling 3D structures to be designed in the Allegro and Virtuoso environments, optimized in the analysis tool and implemented in the design tool without being redrawn.

“At gigabit speeds on our highly dense PCBs with over 30 layers, we depend on accurate interconnect extraction of our complex structures to support signal integrity analysis,” said Rick Burns, vice president of engineering, Semiconductor Test Division at Teradyne. “With the Cadence Clarity 3D Solver, we can achieve the necessary accuracy in a fraction of the time it has previously taken. This has opened up a new era of analysis possibilities for us since we can now run dozens of simulations in the time it has previously taken to run one. This reduces design re-spins and helps us fulfill our promise of delivering the highest throughput and lowest cost of test for our customers.”

“As we move into the era of More than Moore, multi-physics simulations are becoming increasingly important to our future chip and system designs,” said Catherine Xia, senior director of platform technology at HiSilicon. “Legacy 3D field solver technology has been incapable of meeting our requirements for simulating the entire system, including chip, package, PCB and enclosure. We are very excited to see the breakthrough performance and capacity introduced by the Cadence Clarity 3D Solver, and we look forward to more system-level simulation innovations from Cadence.”

“Our newly formed System Analysis Group is breaking new ground on next-generation algorithms to solve the most difficult electromagnetic challenges across ICs, packages, boards and complete systems,” said Tom Beckley, senior vice president and general manager of the Custom IC & PCB Group at Cadence. “This first major technology breakthrough, the Clarity 3D Solver, expands Cadence’s product portfolio beyond traditional EDA—furthering our System Design Enablement strategy and enabling us to expand our system portfolio and market opportunities. With the Clarity 3D Solver, semiconductor and systems companies can address system-level problems for a broad spectrum of today’s most challenging applications including 112G communication networks, IoT, automotive/ADAS, and other complex high-speed electronic systems.”

Click here for more info on Clarity 3D Solver.

About Cadence

Cadence enables electronic systems and semiconductor companies to create the innovative end products that are transforming the way people live, work and play. Cadence software, hardware and semiconductor IP are used by customers to deliver products to market faster. The company’s System Design Enablement strategy helps customers develop differentiated products—from chips to boards to systems—in mobile, consumer, cloud datacenter, automotive, aerospace, IoT, industrial and other market segments. Cadence is listed as one of Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For.