Switched-capacitor circuit captured and optimized using MDA’s M-DESIGN™ analog, mixed-signal and custom digital design tool leads to considerable performance and robustness gains over manual design.
Leuven, Belgium, August 22, 2007 - Mephisto Design Automation (MDA), a leading analog EDA innovator and provider of analog EDA tools and services, and AnSem, a leading analog design services company, today announced the successful validation of MDA’s M-DESIGN™ tool capabilities.
M-DESIGN was used to substantially improve the settling behavior of a complex switched-capacitor circuit. The original manual design failed to satisfy the target specification of settling time at the desired operating frequency, forcing the circuit to be operated at a lower frequency. In particular, PVT variations made it difficult to obtain the desired settling behavior.
Martin Vogels, CTO of MDA who worked with AnSem engineers to solve this problem explains: “By utilizing AnSem’s circuit expertise in combination with M-DESIGN’s capabilities to fully capture design intent, the switched-capacitor circuit was sized for the desired specifications, most notably the settling time, and all specifications were met for all PVT variations.”
According to Stefan Gogaert, AnSem CEO, designer expertise combined with an excellent analog tool provided a breakthrough: “The combination of AnSem’s circuit expertise with a high-performant analog-tailored design and optimization tool led to results that were impossible to attain without the tool.” Jan Vandenbussche, project leader at AnSem continues: “Using the M-DESIGN tool, significantly better circuit performance and robustness were achieved using much less time than a fully manual design.”
M-DESIGN is the first analog design tool that allows to completely capture any analog, mixed-signal and custom digital design problem. M-DESIGN successfully exploits designer expertise to achieve best-in-class results. Using MDA’s proprietary optimization algorithm and graphical post-processor, designers are able to simulate, size, optimize and migrate complex circuits while sticking to their familiar simulation tools.
“This case is another prove of the effectiveness of M-DESIGN’s unique technology based on patent-pending innovations and shows that our tool enables designers to succeed in their most challenging design tasks. Putting the analog designer behind the steering wheel by offering him a flexible environment to exploit his knowledge and creativity, has been MDA’s goal from the start. We are delighted to see our designer-centric approach being accepted”, commented Kenneth Francken, CEO of MDA.
About AnSem
Based in Leuven, Belgium, AnSem is a fabless IC design house founded in 1998 specializing in the development of the most advanced analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for RF CMOS, high-speed data communication, data acquisition and ultra low-power & low-voltage applications. AnSem is a proven and solid development partner worldwide for customers requiring custom design, IP based design and full turnkey solutions. For more information please visit www.ansem.com.
Tool Background
M-DESIGN is MDA’s flagship product that is based on more than 10 man-years of research and development, originally performed at the K.U. Leuven university (Belgium) under supervision of Prof. Georges Gielen and Prof. Willy Sansen. The IP was transferred from the university, a shareholder of MDA, when it was founded in 2005.
About MDA
Mephisto Design Automation (MDA) delivers complete analog design automation solutions in the form of unique software tools and accompanying consultancy services. MDA’s flagship product M-DESIGN™ is the tool of choice for simulation, sizing, optimization, verification and migration of analog, mixed-signal and custom digital designs. More information is available at www.mephisto-da.com.
Contacts:
Jan Decaluwe, VP Business Development
Mephisto Design Automation
+32 497 459 998
sales@mephisto-da.com
Bas Dorren, Sales & Marketing Manager
AnSem NV
+32 16 38 65 00
business@ansem.com
|