Cadence, Imec to offer shuttle pgm to varsities

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cadence Design Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of Cadence Design Systems, Inc., on Tuesday announced that it has entered into an agreement with imec, an independent research center in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology, in conjunction with the imec Europractice IC Service, to develop a shuttle program for Cadence University Software Program members.

This provides Indian universities with unprecedented access to advanced technologies, enabling their students to work with state-of-the-art process and design techniques through to silicon tape-out, said a press release.

As part of the agreement, Cadence will offer support to its University Software Program members by providing flows and methodologies, and imec will provide access to IC technologies down to 65nm, SPICE models, design rules, PDKs, and standard cell libraries.

The shuttle program will allow the members to tape out all technologies offered through Europractice. This will give universities foundry access for silicon verification which has been a hurdle due to lack of strong academia-foundry partnerships.

The Cadence-imec collaboration bridges the gap, allowing students to span SoC and Silicon Realization, key tenets of the Cadence EDA360 vision.

Jaswinder Ahuja, corporate vice president and managing director, Cadence Design Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd, said, “The collaboration with imec takes our program to the next level by giving students access to actual silicon samples. It is an invaluable experience for students to work on a real-life tape out and will better prepare them to handle the tape out pressures of the fast-paced semiconductor industry.”

He added that the Cadence University Software Program in India currently has more than 250 colleges enrolled across India and encompasses faculty development, the Cadence Design Contest, and the Cadence VLSI Certification Program.

“We see a great potential for innovation in Indian universities. This collaboration with Cadence will help grow the industry by providing strategic value to universities and putting them on equal footing with their foreign counterparts,” said Dr. Carl Das, director of ASIC Services at imec.

“Imec is committed to catalyze Indian entrepreneurs in creating nano-electronic products and solutions. From our newly opened Bangalore office (www.imec-in.in), we look forward to working with Indian universities and companies to validate ideas, build prototypes, and support low-volume production. We are very pleased to have the support of Cadence in this endeavor,” said Dr. Paul Marchal, R&D director of imec India.