Fresh PCB Concepts: Assembly Challenges with Micro Components and Standard Solder Mask Practices
Elementary Mr. Watson: Retro Routers vs. Modern Boards—The Silent Struggle on Your Screen
Beyond Design: The Metamorphosis of the PCB Router
Cadence Introduces EMX Designer
April 14, 2023 | Cadence Design Systems, Inc.Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. announced the new Cadence® EMX® Designer, a passive device synthesis and optimization technology that delivers, in split seconds, design rule check (DRC)-clean parametric cells (PCells) and accurate electromagnetic (EM) models of passive devices, such as inductors, transformers, T-coils and more. Seamlessly integrated with the Cadence Virtuoso® ADE Product Suite, the EMX Designer solution offers more than 10X faster synthesis times, with significant productivity gains versus other solutions.
The EMX Designer solution lets customers rapidly synthesize DRC-clean passive devices at a touch of a button, based on electrical and geometrical requirements. With unparalleled flexibility, EMX Designer PCells can easily be modified to meet the designers’ exact layout requirements, utilizing a long list of options from a user-friendly interface inside the Virtuoso platform. When used with the EMX 3D Planar Solver, the industry’s gold-standard electromagnetic modeling engine, the EMX Designer solution ensures the accuracy of generated models. The seamless integration with the Virtuoso platform offers users various options for plotting and appending results.
“pSemi evaluated the Cadence EMX Designer solution as we were interested in automating the passive device creation and optimization process for our proprietary PDKs,” said John Sung, Vice President of Engineering Infrastructure at pSemi. “EMX Designer fully met our requirements for PCell flexibility, speed and accuracy. It is seamlessly integrated into the Cadence design flow and will improve the productivity of our design teams.”
“The new EMX Designer solution adds key technology to our leading Custom IC design flow, delivering the most flexible passive-device PCells in record-breaking time while also enabling significant productivity gains,” said Tom Beckley, senior vice president and general manager, Custom IC & PCB Group at Cadence. “We are pleased to offer our customers an expanded, complete, highly differentiated and efficient IC design platform that addresses the early stages of the design all the way through to signoff and closure.”
“Using Cadence’s new EMX Designer solution, our team was able to improve productivity and reduce design cycle times,” said Peter Gammel, CEO, Ubilite. “We managed to synthesize passive devices with better performance, and at the same time, save 20% silicon area for the advanced process nodes we use with the new solution. EMX Designer offers us a versatile library of passive devices, delivering extremely accurate results across all process nodes at incredibly fast speeds.”
The EMX Designer solution seamlessly interfaces with Cadence EMX 3D Planar Solver and further supports the Cadence Intelligent System Design™ strategy, enabling system-on-chip (SoC) design excellence and system innovation.
Share on:
Suggested Items
DownStream Acquisition Fits Siemens’ ‘Left-Shift’ Model
06/26/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007I recently spoke to DownStream Technologies founder Joe Clark about the company’s acquisition by Siemens. We were later joined by A.J. Incorvaia, Siemens’ senior VP of electronic board systems. Joe discussed how he, Rick Almeida, and Ken Tepper launched the company in the months after 9/11 and how the acquisition came about. A.J. provides some background on the acquisition and explains why the companies’ tools are complementary.
Elementary Mr. Watson: Retro Routers vs. Modern Boards—The Silent Struggle on Your Screen
06/26/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonThere's a story about a young woman preparing a holiday ham. Before putting it in the pan, she cuts off the ends. When asked why, she shrugs and says, "That's how my mom always did it." She asks her mother, who gives the same answer. Eventually, the question reaches Grandma, who laughs and says, "Oh, I only cut the ends off because my pan was too small." This story is a powerful analogy for how many PCB designers approach routing today.
Siemens Turbocharges Semiconductor and PCB Design Portfolio with Generative and Agentic AI
06/24/2025 | SiemensAt the 2025 Design Automation Conference, Siemens Digital Industries Software today unveiled its AI-enhanced toolset for the EDA design flow.
Cadence AI Autorouter May Transform the Landscape
06/19/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazinePatrick Davis, product management director with Cadence Design Systems, discusses advancements in autorouting technology, including AI. He emphasizes a holistic approach that enhances placement and power distribution before routing. He points out that younger engineers seem more likely to embrace autorouting, while the veteran designers are still wary of giving up too much control. Will AI help autorouters finally gain industry-wide acceptance?
Beyond Design: The Metamorphosis of the PCB Router
06/18/2025 | Barry Olney -- Column: Beyond DesignThe traditional PCB design process is often time-consuming and labor-intensive. Routing a complex PCB layout can consume up to 30% of a designer’s time, and addressing this issue is not straightforward. We have all encountered this scenario: You spend hours setting the constraints and finally hit the Go button, only to be surprised by the lack of visual appeal and the obvious flaws in the result.