(August 4, 2009) MUNICH, Germany and Westford, MA — Zuken completed a three-year European research project focused on improving the development process and modeling of new chip sets and dedicated high-density interconnect (HDI) that will bring major improvements to the company’s high-speed design software, CR-5000 Lightning for Power Integrity analysis.
The project involved collaboration with IC vendors and automotive electronic suppliers, resulting in advancements in modeling capabilities for automotive electronic relevant circuits and beyond. The first stage of enhancements directly resulting from this project will be integrated into version 12 of CR-5000 Lightning scheduled for launch in Q’03 2009.
The close research cooperation with IC companies and development groups of complex motor control units in the MEDEA+ project has enabled Zuken to schedule significant enhancements into the CR-5000 Lightning solution, particularly for supporting Power Integrity analysis. In subsequent versions of the software, dedicated IC models delivered by IC vendors like Infineon that describe the chip power-ground behavior will be supported in the analysis phase.
The signal integrity analysis capabilities of CR-5000 Lightning will also be improved as a result of this project, providing functionality that allows modeling of package parasitic effects, e.g., when analyzing noise effects on high-speed PCBs.
Zuken’s EMC Technology Centre in Germany was brought onboard for the MEDEA+ Parasitic Extraction and Optimization for Efficient Microelectronic System Design and Application Research (PARACHUTE) Project to provide the design level modeling and simulation. As the primary EDA partner providing new EMC modeling concepts within the MEDEA+ PARACHUTE research project, Zuken has also positively contributed to the industry by assisting in the development of a new approach to electronic design in Europe relating to physical noise from nanometer circuits to IC package and PCB/system-level design.
Ralf Brüning, from Zuken Technology Centre in Paderborn, Germany, who headed up this activity for Zuken and led the subproject, “Add-On Tool Environment and Design Flow”, comments, “By working with companies such as Airbus, Astrium, Bosch, Continental, Infineon, Philips and ST-Microelectronics, along with various universities and research labs, we have been able to gain firsthand knowledge of the specific issues the market is facing when using very dense high-speed designs in automotive or aerospace control units. This has given us important experience enabling Zuken to incorporate industry-relevant improvements into future software releases.”
For more information about CR-5000 Lightning, visit www.zuken.com/lightningemc.
MEDEA, the industry-initiated pan-European program for advanced co-operative research and development in microelectronics. By working in partnership with companies such as Airbus, Alcatel, Bosch, Infineon, Continental, Philips and ST-Microelectronics, the project has begun forming the basis of methods of modelling and simulation at the system design level.