Cadence Design Systems Case Studies Fuji Electric's Accelerated Power IC Design with Cadence Solutions

Edit This Case Study Record

	Fuji Electric's Accelerated Power IC Design with Cadence Solutions Cadence Design Systems

Fuji Electric's Accelerated Power IC Design with Cadence Solutions

Cadence Design Systems

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation Robots - Parallel Robots
Applicable Industries	Automotive Electrical Grids
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Digital Twin Virtual Reality
Services	System Integration
Challenge	Fuji Electric (FE), a global company based in Japan, was faced with the challenge of developing a new driver IC for its power modules and power ICs. The company needed a control function that could meet the specifications of a new power-management system. The design team had to explore a new control algorithm, including the design concept for the new power-management system. The IC would need to support many functions, such as a protection function to stop the system in case of unusual conditions, such as high or low voltage during a lightning storm. The aggressive time-to-market requirements for this new low-power, low-noise, low-cost power-supply IC added to the complexity of the task. The team also needed to increase the efficiency of the concept design and manage complex verification items. Read More
About Customer	Fuji Electric (FE) is a global company based in Japan that supplies advanced, innovative power device and power modules. These products are designed to save energy while offering high performance, downsizing, and high reliability to the new energy, green Internet Data Center (IDC), and automotive markets. With the growth of new energy sectors, such as wind power and mega solar, FE’s large-capacity modules are gaining popularity. The company has a wide range of products with insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules that include up to 3,300 volts for maximum rated voltage and up to 3,600 amps for maximum rated current. These high-speed IGBTs offer fast switching to enhance high-efficiency equipment. Read More
Solution	To improve the efficiency of its concept design, the FE design team decided to use Verilog-A for this project. They adopted Cadence® Virtuoso® Accelerated Parallel Simulator, part of Virtuoso Multi-Mode Simulation, to develop the driver IC for its power modules and power ICs. This simulator performs advanced, SPICE-accurate simulation for faster convergence on design goals while offering scalable performance and capacity. It’s tightly integrated with the Virtuoso Analog Design Environment, which enables FE engineers to capture and pass design intent in the same environment, and it provides all the transistor-level analysis capabilities of Virtuoso Spectre® Circuit Simulator. The simulator’s proprietary full-matrix–solving technology delivers unparalleled scalability and multithreading capability using modern multi-core compute platforms, ensuring precise simulation without sacrificing accuracy of results. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation

Robots - Parallel Robots

Applicable Industries

Automotive

Electrical Grids

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Digital Twin

Virtual Reality

Services

System Integration

Challenge

Fuji Electric (FE), a global company based in Japan, was faced with the challenge of developing a new driver IC for its power modules and power ICs. The company needed a control function that could meet the specifications of a new power-management system. The design team had to explore a new control algorithm, including the design concept for the new power-management system. The IC would need to support many functions, such as a protection function to stop the system in case of unusual conditions, such as high or low voltage during a lightning storm. The aggressive time-to-market requirements for this new low-power, low-noise, low-cost power-supply IC added to the complexity of the task. The team also needed to increase the efficiency of the concept design and manage complex verification items.

About Customer

Fuji Electric (FE) is a global company based in Japan that supplies advanced, innovative power device and power modules. These products are designed to save energy while offering high performance, downsizing, and high reliability to the new energy, green Internet Data Center (IDC), and automotive markets. With the growth of new energy sectors, such as wind power and mega solar, FE’s large-capacity modules are gaining popularity. The company has a wide range of products with insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules that include up to 3,300 volts for maximum rated voltage and up to 3,600 amps for maximum rated current. These high-speed IGBTs offer fast switching to enhance high-efficiency equipment.

Solution

To improve the efficiency of its concept design, the FE design team decided to use Verilog-A for this project. They adopted Cadence® Virtuoso® Accelerated Parallel Simulator, part of Virtuoso Multi-Mode Simulation, to develop the driver IC for its power modules and power ICs. This simulator performs advanced, SPICE-accurate simulation for faster convergence on design goals while offering scalable performance and capacity. It’s tightly integrated with the Virtuoso Analog Design Environment, which enables FE engineers to capture and pass design intent in the same environment, and it provides all the transistor-level analysis capabilities of Virtuoso Spectre® Circuit Simulator. The simulator’s proprietary full-matrix–solving technology delivers unparalleled scalability and multithreading capability using modern multi-core compute platforms, ensuring precise simulation without sacrificing accuracy of results.

Impact #1	The adoption of Cadence® Virtuoso® Accelerated Parallel Simulator significantly improved the efficiency of Fuji Electric's verification environment for a device-level power-management system. The solution allowed the team to meet their aggressive time-to-market goals without sacrificing the quality of the product. The team was able to manage complex verification items more efficiently, leading to a 26x improvement in verification performance. The simulator's advanced, SPICE-accurate simulation also led to a 2x improvement in simulation performance. In the future, the team plans to continue working with Cadence solutions and is discussing a completely automated migration to take the team’s efficiency improvements to the next level.

Impact #1

The adoption of Cadence® Virtuoso® Accelerated Parallel Simulator significantly improved the efficiency of Fuji Electric's verification environment for a device-level power-management system. The solution allowed the team to meet their aggressive time-to-market goals without sacrificing the quality of the product. The team was able to manage complex verification items more efficiently, leading to a 26x improvement in verification performance. The simulator's advanced, SPICE-accurate simulation also led to a 2x improvement in simulation performance. In the future, the team plans to continue working with Cadence solutions and is discussing a completely automated migration to take the team’s efficiency improvements to the next level.

Benefit #1	Reduced design lead time by approximately 25% with SPICE-accurate simulation
Benefit #2	Improved verification performance by 26x
Benefit #3	Improved simulation performance by 2x

Benefit #1

Reduced design lead time by approximately 25% with SPICE-accurate simulation

Benefit #2

Improved verification performance by 26x

Benefit #3

Improved simulation performance by 2x

Download PDF Version

Overview

Fuji Electric's Accelerated Power IC Design with Cadence Solutions

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit