Silvaco

"Ivan Pesic" redirects here. For a footballer, see Ivan Pešić.
Silvaco, Inc.
Private Company
Industry Software & Programming
Founded 1984
Founder Ivan Pesic
Headquarters Santa Clara, California
Key people
Iliya Pesic, Chairman
David Dutton, CEO
Website www.silvaco.com
Simucad Design Automation, Inc.
Private Company
Industry Software & Programming
Founded 1981, 2004
Headquarters Santa Clara, California

Silvaco, Inc. is a privately owned provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software[1] and TCAD process and device simulation software.[2] Silvaco was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and in 2006 the company had about 250 employees worldwide.

Silvaco provides analog semiconductor process, device and design automation solutions in CMOS, bipolar, SiGe and compound technologies. Customers include leading fabless semiconductor companies, integrated semiconductor manufacturers, foundries, and universities worldwide.

History

Founded by Dr Ivan Pesic (September 13, 1951, Resnik, Montenegro October 20, 2012, Japan[3][4]) in 1984, the company is privately held and internally funded. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with eight offices worldwide including US offices in Austin, Texas, North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and Phoenix, Arizona.

In 2003 Silvaco acquired EDA Pioneer Simucad, for its brand name as well as for its SILOS and Hyperfault simulators. Simucad was one of the oldest companies in the IC design industry.[5][6] The original Simucad was formed in 1981 with pioneering business in Verilog simulation. It was acquired by HHB Systems, which in its turn was acquired by Daisy Systems in 1980s and in the early 1990s Simucad was spun off as a management buyout. After purchasing Simucad in 2003 Silvaco re-launched the brand by spinning out its EDA product line in 2006 under the Simucad name.[5][7] Simucad acquired ownership all of Silvaco's simulation and CAD products and intellectual property, most notably the SmartSpice circuit simulator.[8] As of March 1, 2010, Simucad Design Automation and Silvaco Data Systems were merged back together forming Silvaco, Inc.

In 2012 David Halliday[3] was appointed CEO after Ivan Pesic the company founder died from cancer. David Halliday joined Silvaco in 1992 and prior to his appointment as CEO he was the company COO. David also held the office of Vice President of Engineering for much of his tenure at Silvaco.

In 2015, Silvaco announced a new CEO, David Dutton. The company also announced its entry into the power integrity signoff market via the acquisition of Invarian.

Products

Silvaco delivers EDA and Stanford-based TCAD products with support and engineering services to provide semiconductor process and device simulation solutions. Worldwide customers include leading foundries, fabless semiconductor companies, integrated semiconductor manufacturers, universities, and semiconductor designers.

TCAD products

EDA products

The company supplies integrated EDA software in the areas of Analog/Mixed-Signal/RF, Custom IC CAD, Interconnect Modeling, and Digital CAD.

Process Design Kits (PDKs)

Silvaco offers process design kits (PDKs) for analog, mixed-signal and RF design teams. These are collections of verified data files that are used by a set of custom IC design EDA tools to provide a design flow. Such data files include schematic symbols, parameterized cells (PCells), DRC/LVS runsets, parasitic extraction runsets, and scripts to automate the generation and verification of design data.

Foundry process-specific models, symbols, and rule decks are integrated and tested with Silvaco custom IC design tools and PCells to create an AMS/RF design environment.

Litigation

Silvaco has been involved in litigation against Circuit Semantics, Inc. (CSI),[11] Technology Modeling Associates, MetaSoftware and Avanti Corporation for theft of trade secrets. Silvaco won a $20 million judgment from Avanti just prior to the latter company's acquisition by Synopsys.[12] In 2008, legal action by Silvaco against Cypress Semiconductor, Inc. led the California Court of Appeal to make a ruling clarifying when the statute of limitations for theft of trade secrets begins. The ruling stated that "statute of limitations on a cause of action for misappropriation begins to run when the plaintiff has any reason to suspect that the third party knows or reasonably should know that the information is a trade secret."[13][14][15]

In Silvaco Data Systems v. Intel Corp., Silvaco sued Intel for misappropriation of trade secrets (deriving from the CSI case), but ultimately lost in both the trial and appellate courts.

References

  1. Goering, Richard (2004-06-07). "Mixed-signal simulation tool supports Linux". EE Times. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
  2. Valco, George. "Getting Started with the Silvaco TCAD Software for EE637 and EE734". Retrieved 2010-04-13.
  3. 1 2 "Silvaco Founder and CEO Dr Ivan Pesic Succumbs to Cancer"
  4. "In Memory of Ivan Pesic of Silvaco (1951 - 2012)", John Cooley, DeepChip, ESNUG 510 Item 5
  5. 1 2 "Simucad spins out of Silvaco with eye toward IPO", Michael Santarini, 09 January 2006, Electronics Weekly
  6. Richard Goering (2003-10-10). "Silvaco buys EDA pioneer Simucad". EE Times. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
  7. EETimes.com - Simucad spins out from Silvaco, plans IPO in '06
  8. "Elpida Standardizes on Simucad's SmartSpice Analog Circuit Simulator". Reuters. 2008-01-23. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
  9. Fuller, Dr. Lynn (2010-03-10). "2D Process Modeling with Silvaco ATHENA" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-04-13.
  10. McCloy, Darin J. (1999). High Efficiency Solar Cells: A Model in Silvaco (Spiral-bound). ISBN 978-1-4235-4151-6.
  11. Goering, Richard (2002-11-06). "Silvaco vs. CSI trade secrets case headed to trial". EE Times. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
  12. Santarini, Mike (2004-05-25). "Silvaco lawsuits cloud Circuit Semantics' future". EE Times. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
  13. Stickel, Amy I. (2008-08-01). "Court Clarifies Statute of Limitations for Trade Secrets". InsideCounsel. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
  14. "Effective Trade Secret Protection: Speed is of the Essence". Jackson Lewis LLP. 2008-06-16. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
  15. Firm, Weintraub (2009-01-30). "Third Party Trade Secret Misappropriation and the Statute of Limitations". Retrieved 2010-04-14.
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