Through a combination of multiple new development projects, product certifications and innovative technology enablement for the foundry’s newest process technologies, customers will be able to develop highly differentiated end-products using Siemens’ EDA solutions together with TSMC’s silicon process and advanced packaging technologies.
"Strengthening our ongoing alliance with Open Innovation Platform (OIP) ecosystem partners like Siemens keeps us at the forefront in accelerating advancements in 3D IC design for AI innovation," said Dan Kochpatcharin, Head of Ecosystem and Alliance Management Division at TSMC. "Our longtime collaboration with Siemens allows our mutual customers to fully harness the power, performance, and efficiency of TSMC's cutting-edge technologies."
Siemens’ Calibre nmPlatform tool has been certified for TSMC’s N2 and N2P processes. The N2 certification includes the new LSVRF (Local Standard Verification Rule Format) functionality in Calibre, which enables independent rule checking within specific regions of a processor for optimal verification accuracy.
The collaboration around Siemens’ Calibre portfolio also includes TSMC N2 qualification for Siemens’ Calibre xACT software.
The two companies have also collaborated to certify parts of Siemens’ Solido Simulation Suite software for analogue, mixed-signal, RF and memory designs, with the recent certification of Siemens’ Solido SPICE and Analog FastSPICE (AFS) tools for TSMC’s N2 and N2P processes.
In addition, as part of the custom design reference flow (CDRF) for TSMC’s N2 process, Siemens’ AFS tool now supports TSMC’s Reliability Aware Simulation technology, which addresses IC aging and real-time self-heating effects, among other advanced reliability features. The CDRF for TSMC’s N2 technology also integrates Siemens’ Solido Design Environment software for advanced variation-aware verification.
To support and advance next-generation physical implementation designs, TSMC has qualified Siemens’ Aprisa software for place-and-route for the foundry’s N3E and N3P processes to offer Aprisa customers new levels of performance and power efficiency.
Further extending the partnership into the realm of silicon photonics, Siemens and TSMC are now working to develop a flow methodology to help customers leverage the foundry’s Compact Universal Photonic Engines (COUPE) silicon photonics technology using Siemens’ tools.
The on-going collaborations include Tanner software custom IC tools for photonics IC design, Xpedition Substrate Integrator software for system assembly and Siemens’ Calibre 3DStack software for the physical verification of the entire COUPE integrated system.
Siemens and TSMC have also collaborated on the definition and testing of Calibre 3DThermal software, which is Siemens’ newest thermal analysis solution for verification and debugging of advanced 3D integrated circuits (3D-ICs).
Siemens’ relationship with TSMC now also extends into the services realm, with Siemens officially joining the TSMC Design Center Alliance (DCA), and as part of TSMC’s cloud-based Secure Chamber initiative, Siemens and TSMC have successfully demonstrated the Calibre, mPower and AFS toolsets running in the AWS Cloud.
“Siemens EDA’s extensive and successful collaboration with TSMC enables advanced solution certifications for the latest process technologies required by our mutual customers,” said Mike Ellow, CEO, Silicon Systems, Siemens Digital Industries Software. "By integrating Siemens' top-tier IC design tools with TSMC's state-of-the-art processes and advanced packaging technologies, we empower our shared customers to achieve groundbreaking and transformative innovations."
