Tanner EDA and TowerJazz, have completed qualification of Tanner EDA’s process design kit (PDK) for TowerJazz’s 0.18um Power Management process. This design kit includes symbol libraries for Tanner EDA’s S-Edit schematic capture software as well as parameterised layout generators for its widely installed layout editor, L-Edit.

To compliment this PDK, the companies have released TowerJazz’s Power Management AMS Reference Flow, which includes a comprehensive design flow and a Band Gap Reference design that together provide mutual customers with a productive and open custom design solution. The combination of TowerJazz’s advanced power management process with detailed steps and layout tools from Tanner EDA provides analog and mixed-signal IC designers the ability to quickly and accurately create power management chips, including driver ICs, battery and portable power management, and power control for PCs for consumer, communications, and computing applications.

The TowerJazz AMS PM Reference Flow includes a reference design that is based on the TowerJazz 180-nm iPDK. Complete documentation covering the overall flow as well as the detailed reference flow steps also is included. Mutual customers can quickly utilize the complete power management design flow from schematic capture to simulation, layout, physical verification, and parasitic extraction. The comprehensive reference flow also includes valuable productivity features to help designers achieve an on-time and on-budget tape-out.

“Our relationship with Tanner EDA has been based on offering effective, affordable, and all-encompassing solutions to the analog and mixed-signal community,” said Ori Galzur, vice president of design center and PDK development at TowerJazz “By extending our collaboration to an open iPDK solution for power management at each process node, we continue to allow engineering teams to reduce resource utilization and design cycles.”

“The collaboration between TowerJazz and Tanner EDA delivers tangible benefits such as price, performance and robust design tools to the analog IC design community,” said John Zuk, vice president of marketing and foundry relations at Tanner EDA. “Our initial announcements about this relationship yielded strong support from our respective customers – and I’m excited to see our teams deliver on those plans.”

TowerJazz 180-nm Process and Features

TowerJazz’s 180-nm Power Management offering is a cost-effective solution which offers modular add-ons such as a unique zero-mask-adder multi-programmable non-volatile memory (NVM) solution, thick copper-top metallization for high current drive, and optional 1.8V gate for heavy digital power management integrated circuits (ICs). In addition, it offers scalable LDMOS devices that provide excellent area optimization of the power devices for up to 60 volts, all with very low mask count.