PeakView® EM Designer, EMD™, has an extensive synthesis library of parameterized devices (PCircuits) aiding designers as they explore, design and adjust advanced components in preparation for circuit simulation and optimization. This comprehensive library includes diffrerent types of T-coils, inductors, multi-layer spirals, transformers, mmWave couplers, co-planar waveguides, photonics transmission lines, etc. Users also have the flexibility to script and customized an existing PCircuits to meet their specific design needs.
EMD™ Simplifies and Accelerates the Design of Passive Devices
- EM Synthesis and Optimization Passives: From the extensive PCircuit library, users identify their desired passive geometry, they specify the design target and spatial constraints, and PeakView® delivers the final device layout for the expected performance.
- EM Designer Tools: The dimensions of passive devices (outer length, trace width, spacing, etc) can be varied through parametric sweeps, which provides a broader insight of the device performance.
- Accuracy, Performance and Capacity: EM Designer flow is based on PeakView®’s patented fullwave EM solver, guaranteeing a reliable model and minimizing design iterations.
- Physics-Based Modeling (RLCK): Compact RLCK models for EM devices called Physics-Based models (PBM™) are available, contributing to transient circuit simulations.
- Process Independent Pcircuit: The same Pcircuits can be used for multiple processes. The required layer stacking profile is easily converted from industry standard layer information files (iRCX, ITF or ICT), hence its effortless to switch foundries or process nodes
- Circuit and EM Co-Simulation with ADE-XL: EMD™ is seamlessly coupled through EM co-simulation driven from Virtuoso® Analog Design Environment (ADE). Users are able to sweep parameters of synthesized devices within ADE, and PeakView® computes the EM results and updates the simulation net-list for each iteration of the sweep.
EMD™ Flow

EMD™ High-Performance Design Features
- Dynamic PCircuits: These are the add-on circuits for the core passive devices, such as guard rings, patterned-ground shields, metalfills, ground planes, etc, whose parameters are adjustable.
- Combo Cell: Combo Cell allows the user to design a device with multiple dynamic Pcircuits, which improves the device performance to achieve the required specs. This allows the user to design more advanced passive devices to reach breakthrough specs.

EMD™ Design Environment Integration
- Circuit and EM Co-Simulation: EMD™ has a Circuit and EM Co-Simulation feature that can be driven from Virtuoso®’s Analog Design Environment (ADE). Designers only consider the circuit level behavior, and EMD™ generates new device EM models and inserts the models into the net-list automatically enhancing designer productivity
- Physics-Based Modeling (PBM): In addition to purely numerical n-port S-parameter models, PeakView EMD™ provides the option to generate compact RLCK models known as the Physics-Based Modeling (PBM) solution, which generate SPICE compatible equivalent sub-circuits for use in transient circuit simulations.
- DFM Support for Advanced Processes: EMD™ accurately simulate and extract complex metal slotting, stripping, via arrays and metalfills.
- Silicon Data Correlation: EMD™ simulations confirm excellent correlation to silicon data in advanced process nodes. It has been successfully deployed in characterizing a 20nm process node and verified within a 1-2% margin of error for inductance. A plot of silicon measurement vs. simulation for a single-ended total capacitance of a 1-turn inductor is shown in the following figure.

Total capacitance vs. frequency plot for a 20nm single-turn inductor (courtesy of TSMC)
Supported Formats
- EMD™ Setup
- iRCX format technology file from TSMC
- ITF format technology file from foundries
- EMD™ Input
- Standard Library PCircuit
- User-defined PCircuit
- EMD™ Output
- n-port, Physics-Based EM models.
- Cadence® library views, i.e. DRC clean layout, schematic symbols, etc.
- Platform
- Linux 64 bit, i.e. Redhat and SUSE
- LSF, NC-based computing farm