Jan 21 2010
Leti, a leading global research center committed to creating and commercializing innovation in micro- and nanotechnologies, and R3Logic, a leading 3D IC EDA company, announced today that they will combine their expertise in 3D silicon integration and packaging. Under the terms of the common laboratory agreement, they will use new generation EDA tools provided by R3Logic to build 3D IC designs and methodologies for consumer and wireless applications.
3D ICs enable dramatically improved performances at a much lower cost than new, leading-edge CMOS technologies. The creation of these new ICs depends on the availability of new methodologies and skills that require a deep understanding of the overall semiconductor supply chain, including EDA, design technology and fabrication technology. This three-year Leti-R3Logic common lab is aimed at developing 3D-design solutions to accelerate developments in 3D chip-package co-design, including TSV placement and short-loop floor planning, allowing management of all aspects of the design flow in an integrated fashion.
“With R3Logic’s presence in Grenoble and Leti’s leading design-and-process-technology research infrastructure, we have the full range of competencies of the ideal ecosystem working together,” said Laurent Malier, CEO of Leti. “We are confident this joint lab will accelerate the adoption of 3D-IC technologies by the semiconductor industry, which will better align its fabrication process, and by the mobile- and consumer-device industries, which will develop more-competitive products.”
“Being closer to world-leading design and technology teams will allow us to accelerate the adoption of our EDA tools,” said Lisa McIlrath, CEO of R3Logic, which opened an R&D center in Grenoble in 2009. “We are collaborating with Leti for three reasons: their research and technology expertise will help us accelerate development of our tools, their business model allows us to better protect our IP, and finally, their immersion in a complete ecosystem that concentrates in the same region the full spectrum from R&D in advanced concepts to major global providers of mobile and consumer applications.”