Synopsys and Acceleware Deliver Hardware Accelerated Solution

Speeds EM simulation of CMOS image sensors by up to 20 times.

by DE Editors | Published January 28, 2008

Acceleware Corp. (Calgary, Alberta), developer of high performance computing (HPC) applications, and Synopsys, Inc. (Mountain View, CA), a provider of software and IP for semiconductor design and manufacturing, announced a new hardware solution that enables up to 20-times faster electromagnetic (EM) simulation of optoelectronic devices such as CMOS image sensors.

The solution, which links Synopsys' technology-leading TCAD Sentaurus Device simulation software and Acceleware's ClusterInABox Quad Q30 workstation, enables an order-of-magnitude speed-up of the high-accuracy finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) electromagnetic modeling algorithm used in Sentaurus Device. This performance increase allows engineers to leverage the rigor and accuracy of the FDTD method in designing and optimizing optoelectronic devices while shortening the product development cycle.

TCAD tools are suited for optoelectronics manufacturers designing sophisticated devices and performing complete characterization of their device structures over a range of light incidence angles, lens shapes, pixel sizes, and other factors prior to manufacturing. Due to the complex nature of optoelectronic devices, FDTD simulations typically require tens of hours to fully characterize a CMOS image sensor design in 3D. The new hardware acceleration solution reduces the FDTD simulation time by up to 20 times, allowing engineers to carry out more extensive simulation studies, reducing development costs and time.

TCAD Sentaurus Device simulation software uses the ClusterInABox Quad Q30's built-in NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs), which deliver up to two Teraflops of computational power, to significantly accelerate FDTD simulations of optoelectronic devices.

To view a demo of this joint solution from Synopsys and Acceleware, please visit Acceleware or Synopsys, Inc.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.

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