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Keysight and WIN collaborate to cut design risk for high-frequency RF components

20 d ago

Keysight Technologies Inc of Santa Rosa, CA, USA and WIN Semiconductors Corp of Taoyuan City, Taiwan have announced a joint monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) design workflow that enables gallium nitride (GaN) MMIC design houses to achieve first-pass tapeout success. The collaboration aims to reduce design risk for high-frequency RF components used in 5G base stations, Wi-Fi access points, satellite payloads, and defense radar systems. The new workflow connects on-chip multi-domain simulation, 3D layout with verifications, and off-chip MMIC evaluation board design into a single environment. It automates the full set of simulation, optimization, and verification steps required to sign off on an MMIC design, ensuring no analysis is skipped before submission to the foundry. This is critical because a failed tapeout can result in weeks of lost time due to foundry re-spins. MMIC customers typically will not commit to purchase until they can measure performance on a physical evaluation board comprising the MMIC, packaging, PCB, and test connectors. The workflow allows engineers to design and optimize these on-chip and off-chip components together, so that performance meets specifications as verified with test equipment. With the global GaN RF device market projected to reach $2.77 billion by 2031, design houses that cannot prove performance on the evaluation board risk losing market share. WIN's latest NP 120P GaN process design kit (PDK) gives MMIC designers access to process models and layout rules. These models, integrated within Keysight Advanced Design System (ADS) and RF Circuit Simulation Professional, automate the workflow to achieve first-pass tapeout. "We are delighted to collaborate with Keysight to deliver a customized LVS solution within the WIN ADS PDK," said Richard Kuo, WIN's director of design service. "By combining Keysight's ADS expertise with WIN's robust PDK and advanced process technology, we provided a comprehensive verification solution that streamlined the customer's design flow and accelerated time-to-market for advanced RF products with greater confidence and reliability." Nilesh Kamdar, general manager of EDA design engineering software at Keysight, added: "WIN's complete PDK, combined with Keysight's simulation and verification tools, gives designers a single path from chip design through evaluation board. Design houses can now prove full system performance before fabrication, giving their customers the confidence to commit."