The top three winning entries in the first open analog Design Challenge for an ultra-low power voltage reference were announced today by sponsors efabless corporation, an open-innovation, semiconductor creation platform, and X-FAB Silicon Foundries, the leading analog/mixed-signal and MEMS foundry group.
Winning designs met a given set of conditions across the full range of parameters and were judged by the lowest power dissipation. First place was awarded to Rishi Raghav, whose design had the lowest power consumption. The second place entry was designed by Arsalan Jawed. Ibrahim Muhammed submitted the third-place entry. They were awarded cash prizes of $7,000, $5,000 and $3,000, respectively, and will earn licensing revenues from the use of their intellectual property (IP) through efabless’ online marketplace and X-FAB’s IP Portal.
Designers of all experience levels worldwide were challenged by efabless and X-FAB to deliver a block of intellectual property (IP) developed in X-FAB’s 350 nanometer (nm) mixed-signal process technology. Entrants used the efabless online platform for everything needed to design, verify and deliver the IP, including process technology information, design software, a foundry process design kit (PDK) and a variety of technical guides and webinars.
“Just as X-FAB seeks innovative process solutions for our customers, enhancing mature silicon technologies with new functions and features, also referred to as More than Moore approach, efabless rethinks the creation of IP development,” states Ulrich Bretthauer, X-FAB’s manager of Industrial & Medical Solutions. “We are excited to see how the cooperation of our two companies on this Design Challenge is bringing to life the creativity of an impressive number of designers in the efabless community.”
“We are pleased by the breadth of enthusiasm from our community members to be engaged in such a novel approach to deliver engineering solutions,” says Mike Wishart, chief executive officer of efabless. “Eighty-eight engineers from 26 countries accepted the challenge, and multiple designs were completed on time in conformance with the X-FAB spec. The Design Challenge demonstrates the value of the efabless on-demand IP offering where IC designers will use our platform to get the IP they want when they want it.”
“Our strength sparks from the experience and creativity of our community,” affirms Mohamed Kassem, chief technology officer of efabless. “Through our platform, individual designers and design teams can connect with customers and offer engineering solutions in a game-changing way. Design Challenge participants submitted a range of solutions for the same IP, each with distinct architectural approaches and offering different value propositions. This creativity is a key benefit of our solution and the value of this will only grow as our community completes IP and IC designs of increasing complexity.”
About efabless
efabless corporation is an open innovation, hardware creation platform for “smart” products. Its community delivers customized integrated electronics required for IC companies and hardware system innovators to turn their ideas into marketable products. Specializing in the design of analog/mixed-signal IP and ICs, MEMS and agile ASICs, efabless gives designers the means to define, develop and monetize their work. Its community spans approximately 700 members from 30 countries around the world. For information visit: www.efabless.com
About X-FAB
X-FAB is the leading analog/mixed-signal and MEMS foundry group manufacturing silicon wafers for automotive, industrial, consumer, medical and other applications. Its customers worldwide benefit from the highest quality standards, manufacturing excellence and innovative solutions by using X-FAB’s modular CMOS processes in geometries ranging from 1.0 to 0.13 µm, and its special BCD, SOI and MEMS long-lifetime processes. X-FAB’s analog-digital integrated circuits (mixed-signal ICs), sensors and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are manufactured at six production facilities in Germany, France, Malaysia and the U.S. X-FAB employs approximately 3,800 people worldwide. For more information, please visit www.xfab.com