Triad Semiconductor Analog and Mixed Signal Agile ASIC™ Solutions
Jul 27, 2015
Triad Semiconductor
Analog and Mixed Signal Agile ASIC™ Solutions
Analog and mixed signal ASIC design and manufacturing solutions.
Triad Semiconductor
Agile asic development
Proven Track Record
A decade of delivering mission critical ASIC solutions
defense industrial medical automotive consumer
10
Alternative IC Vendors
Standard Product
Catalog Offering
ASSP
CSSP
ASIC
OthersStandard Product FocusedASIC is a special caseChip must with mass appeal
Organized to share your IP with your competitors
Triad - Proudly ASIC Focused
ASIC-only.ASIC-cultureYour ASIC partnerYour IP VaultEmpowering you to differentiate in hardware
Experienced ASIC Design Team
Years of combined custom IC design experience600
ASIC Engineering Organization
Engineering TalentProject OrientedRigorous ProcessesBest-in-Class ToolsSecure InfrastructureSystem RedundancySpecification DrivenCompliance Exit CriteriaDesign for Test, Yield, ManufacturabilityTrue IP reuse culture
Triad’s Custom IC Engineering Group
25 IC Designers
Customers
Project Leaders [10]
IC Designers [15]
Project Admins [2]
Test Engineers [3]
Cad Engineer
Sys Admin
VP of Engineering
Triad’s ASIC Project Flow DiagramKick-Off Meeting
Initial Requirements & Specification
Specification Review
Digital Design
Analog Design
Digital Simulation
Analog Simulation
Initial Design Review (IDR)
Complete Block Design & Block Layout
Top Level Simulations
Critical Design Review (CDR)
Top Level Layout LVS/DRC Verification
Release to FoundryTape Out
Wafer Fabrication
Prototype Packaging
Test and IC Delivery
Package Requirements
Package Selection
I/O Requirements
Evaluation PCB Development
Bonding Diagram
1
Specification Development
Major Milestone
Customer Provided
Joint Effort
Triad Responsibility
Legend
1Highly recommended to hold kick-off meeting at Triad’s Winston-Salem NC HQ to quickly ramp the project.
Trusted Solutions Provider
Automotive
Medical
Industrial
Defense
Engineering OperationsMission Critical
Solutions
Supply Chain
Distribution Partner
SemiconductorFoundryPartners
Optimal solution throughout the entire supply chain
PackageAssembly Partners
Qualification Production Test Partners
Long Term Supply Commitment is
Core to Triad
Manufacturing Partner
Collectively, we have shipped over 2,000,000,000 ICs
Superior Supply ChainKnow-howRelationshipsSupply Chain Management & OptimizationMarket Introduction, RampHigh Volume
2B
Triad ASIC Solutions
ASIC FocusedASIC Design ExcellenceASIC QualityASIC Long-term Supply CommitmentASIC Manufacturing Partner
Your trusted analog and mixed signal ASIC design and manufacturing solutions provider.
Traditional Full Custom ASIC Challenges
Long development
Expensive development
Risky development
Difficult to make changes
ASIC
ASIC benefits and Agility…
Agile – fast, responsive
Rapid Development
Mitigated Risk
Change Management
Cost EffectiveAgile ASIC™
TS
Agile – Fast to Prototypes
Agile ASICs speed time to 1st Silicon by 3 months
9months
12months
Time to 1st Silicon
Agile ASIC Traditional
The Secret is getting from prototypes to production quickly
Most mixed signal designs need 1 to 2 re-spins to achieve production readiness
Fixing a Traditional ASIC is slow & difficult
Manual Rip Up
ManualLayout
Full Mask Fab
6+months
An Agile ASIC is Responsive
Agile ASICs modified quickly & easily
Manual Rip Up
ManualLayout
Full Mask Fab
6+months
Via-Only Place & Route
Via-Only Fab
1 to 1.5
months
Agile ASICs speed up time to 2nd Silicon by 5-6 months
An Agile ASIC is Fast & Responsive
• Year Faster to Market• Predictable Schedule & Cost• Future Proof• Major Program Savings
26V domain5V domain1.8V domain5V domain
ADC20-bit
HART Modem
1.8V Regulator Band Gap
HART PHY
Bias Generator
Control
Watchdog
Triad Agile ASIC™
Agile ASICs are High Performance
Agile ASICs are High Performance and Low Power
16 Bit ADC MCU
Low Noise TIAs
EEPROM
RAM
UARTDAC DACM
uxPLL
250µALow Power
Major architecture
changes
ViaOnly™Change
50% Power Reduction
Agile ASICs: High Performance Systems
14 Bit ADC
Digital Level
Shifters
TempSensor
Thermal Shutdown
VoltageReferences
3.0V LDO
2.8V LDO
1.2V LDO
1.8V LDO
1.2V Buck Regulator
500mA
1.8V Buck Regulator
150mA
Voltage Supervisor
Soft Start PMIC +Precision Analog
Power FabricIsolationSubstrate NoiseSystem NoiseShieldingDecouplingPower Domains
What is an Agile ASIC?
1 Full Custom Circuits
2 Overlaid with Routing Fabric**Fabric enlarged to show detail
3 ViaPath™ ViaOnly Place & Route Software
4 Design Configured with Vias
Agile ASICs start with full custom circuits
OpAmp OpAmp
Switch Array
Resistor Array
Capacitor Array
Logic Array
Agile ASIC Circuit
Regular, array based layout of resources• Proven performance• Predictable performance
Supports interdigitating of elements• Mitigates thermal gradient effects• Mitigates varying wafer effects
Spare resources carefully pre-planned• No difference in performance• Spares easily accessed by routing fabric
Via Configurable Routing Fabric
Patented Routing Fabric
Fabric made from two verticallyadjacent metal layers
Arranged as a grid of overlappingrouting tracks
Adjacent grids rotated 90 degreesto prevent long routing blockages
Interconnect & configuration accomplished with metal layers and vias.
Same interconnect method used in full-custom IC design.
Vias are low resistance resources ideal for connecting analog circuits
ViaPath™ - Via-Only Place & Route Software
• Analog Aware™ – Differential Routing– Twisted Pairs– Shielding– Power Routing– Power Domains– High Current Routing
• 10 years of constant improvement
Trusted – the US nuclear arsenal is Powered by ViaPath
Agile ASICs – Circuits plus Fabric = Tiles
Op Am
p
Op Am
pSwitc
h Arra
yRe
sisto
r Arra
y
Capa
citor
Arra
y
Logic
Arra
y
Via Configurable Tile
• Tightly coupled combination of circuits and routing fabric
• Fabric is manually added by full-custom IC designer for optimal performance
Fabric enlarged to show detail
Agile ASICs – Tiles Speed Assembly & Optimize Area
Tiles are designed with a focus on rapid chip assemblyand total area optimization
Configurable Tile
Circuits plus Fabric
Configurable TileCircuits plus
FabricConfigurable Tile
Circuits plus Fabric
Configurable Tile
Circuits plus Fabric
Configurable Tile
Circuits plus Fabric
Agile ASICs – Flexible Routing Control & Access
Configurable Tile
Full Custom Circuit
Black Box
KEEP OUT
White Box
Gray Box
Black Box
White BoxViaPath free to route through this area and use available circuits.
Grey BoxViaPath free to route through this area on unused tracks only. Don’t move used circuits or tracks. Don’t make use of unused resources.
Black BoxKeep out. Don’t route through this area nor use any resources.
Complete Agile ASICs Assembled in Days
Days
Triad’s Spectrum of Agile ASIC Solutions
Agile ASIC™
TS
100% Via Reconfigurable
FocusedAgile ASIC™
TS
Reconfigurability in Focused areas only
Full-Custom ASIC
TS
100% Full CustomCost, Size Optimized
Agile Response to Problems
ASIC functioned to spec
Failed In System
Output load off by 20x in the spec
And, Error replicated 28 times
Total rip-up required
Weekend• Schematics changed• Simulated
Hours
• ViaPath routed new circuit
4 Weeks
• ViaOnly single mask fabrication
6 Month Delay 1 Month Fix
Agile ASIC Rapid ResponseProblem
Agile Response to Problems
New Feature Request
After Tape Out!
Customer feared NRE upcharge
Anticipated large schedule hit
Scrap 1-mask only
Days• Schematic Capture, Simulation• ViaPath Place & Route
4 Weeks & Single Mask
• ViaOnly single mask fabrication
Major Cost & Time Savings
Agile ASIC Rapid ResponseProblem
How fast?
Kickoff to working siliconNew Agile ASICComplete mask set
60days
Triad Semiconductor Snapshot
HeadquartersWinston-Salem NCFabless semiconductor companyFounded 200253 Employees32 IC Design Professionals
Regional Sales Offices• West Palm FL• Knoxville TN• Dallas TX• Green Bay WI• Minneapolis MN• Saginaw MI• San Jose CA
Focus Design and manufacture of custom analog and mixed signal integrated circuits.
A rapid, low risk, cost optimized approach to mixed signal ASIC development.
Analog Aware™ place and route software that configures designs by placing vias in Triad’s patented routing fabric.
Mixed signal circuit design, simulation and analog synthesis of circuits created by ViaWizard™ generators.
Agile ASICs™ ViaPath™ ViaDesigner™ ViaWizards™Expert system software that generates Configurable IP (cIP™) from user specified parameters.
Differentiating Technology
Markets
Solutions
For highest volume applications .Full Custom ASIC
Re-configurability in focused areas of the design.Focused Agile ASIC
Entire ASIC is 100% re-configurability.Agile ASIC
Partnersdefense industrial medical automotive consumer
Fast-Full-Custom™
Ultimate Time to Market And Low Cost Solution