- Keysight Technologies has announced that AttoTude—a company specializing in the design of ASICs and dielectric interconnect platforms for hyperscale data centers—has expanded its use of electronic design automation (EDA) tools across its entire continuous integration workflow.
- Implementing this software environment has enabled the company to reduce its development cycles by more than 50%.
The chips developed by AttoTude handle transmission rates of 200G, 400G, and 800G per lane. At these frequencies, internal interconnect structures act as waveguides, necessitating direct electromagnetic simulations to validate designs prior to chip fabrication.
Using the Keysight Advanced Design System (ADS) platform enabled the team to complete simulations, design verification, and the initial production run of integrated circuits in under six weeks, thereby avoiding the need for mask respins.
“Developing a dielectric-interconnect ASIC platform covering frequencies from 100 GHz to 3 THz requires appropriate design accuracy and simulation fidelity,” says Richard Chan, ASIC Architect and Development Manager at AttoTude.
Centralized Design Data Management
Integrating Keysight’s data management system ensures traceability of changes across schematics, electromagnetic models, and measurement results during parallel engineering workflows. System-level modeling is used to evaluate architectural trade-offs before the design is sent to the foundry, ensuring alignment between simulated performance and physical measurements taken on the silicon.
Key integration data
- Target application: Dielectric-interconnect ASIC circuits for AI infrastructure and hyperscale servers.
- Frequency ranges supported: From radio frequency (RF) to sub-THz and THz bands (up to 3 THz).
- Data rates per lane: 200 Gbit/s, 400 Gbit/s, and 800 Gbit/s.
- Software environment: Keysight EDA platform (Advanced Design System) for simulation, version control, and continuous integration.
