Microchip optimises complex analogue designs

Microchip Technology has standardised on Synopsys' Circuit Explorer optimisation and analysis solution for its complex analogue designs.

Microchip Technology has standardised on Synopsys' Circuit Explorer optimisation and analysis solution for its complex analogue designs.

The Microchip team selected Circuit Explorer because it enabled them to take weeks off of their design cycle and eliminate the tedious manual tasks usually associated with complex analogue designs.

"With Circuit Explorer's optimisation and analysis capabilities, we were able to accomplish in days what would have taken weeks with other tool flows", said Craig Filicetti, Simulation Manager at Microchip Technology.

"Circuit Explorer's optimiser doubled the speed of one of our designs while shrinking the circuit's area 20%".

"We completed this design in two weeks using Circuit Explorer, which would have taken 10 weeks to do by hand".

"Circuit Explorer's analysis capabilities, alone, were an improvement over the manual design flow".

"With the click of a button, we were quickly able to understand our circuit performance over all of the PVT (process, voltage and temperature) corners".

"We evaluated several tools for optimisation and analysis, and determined that Circuit Explorer was clearly the best tool for our needs".

Circuit Explorer's optimisation capabilities enable designers to have greater control of their designs.

Circuit Explorer assists designers by automating the iterative task of sizing each device in their circuit and running numerous simulations to meet performance specifications.

This not only saved time for Microchip engineers, by freeing them up for other tasks, but also automatically validated their overall design measurements and PVT corner conditions.

Microchip engineers are using Circuit Explorer's unique graphical data display to explore the design space and quickly comprehend the performance tradeoffs within their circuit architectures.

When designers used a manual design flow, they were never exposed to the circuit's tradeoff options.

Taken together, Circuit Explorer's optimisation, analysis and tradeoff capabilities can increase circuit performance, reduce costly respins and shorten time to market.

"Since incorporating Circuit Explorer's complementary optimisation and analysis technology with our industry leading circuit simulation solution, we have seen it steadily gaining traction in our customer base", said Dr Edmund Cheng, Vice President of Marketing for Analogue and Mixed-Signal Products at Synopsys.

"Our customers are obtaining increased designer productivity and improved design quality since incorporating Circuit Explorer into their flows".

"Circuit Explorer is proving to be an instrumental part of our analogue and mixed-signal design and verification solutions".

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