AWR® and TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., a leading RF front-end product manufacturer and foundry services provider, announced Project JumpStart, a program designed to provide first-time AWR and TriQuint customers with a low cost introduction to the benefits of design and fabrication of gallium arsenide (GaAs) microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMIC). Project Jumpstart offers designers an affordable, low-risk means of bringing wireless design prototypes to market using AWR’s electronic design automation (EDA) tools and TriQuint’s pseudomorphic high electronic mobility transistor (PHEMT) foundry process.
Project Jumpstart includes free process design kits (PDK), a free 90-day lease for AWR’s flagship high-frequency design software, Microwave Office® design suite, and a reduced-rate prototype development quickturn (PDQ) shared-wafer foundry run using TriQuint’s TQPED 0.5 μm pHEMT process.
AWR’s Microwave Office software encompasses all the tools essential for high-frequency design: linear and nonlinear circuit simulators, electromagnetic (EM) analysis tools, integrated schematic and layout, statistical design capabilities, and parametric cell libraries with built-in design-rule check (DRC). The design suite provides innovative technology, flow and choice, delivering intuitiveness-of-use, openness, and interoperability for integration with best-in-class tools for each part of the design process.
TriQuint’s well-established TQPED is a 0.5-μm optical gate enhancement and depletion PHEMT process that features three thick global metal interconnect layers and is well-suited for building switches, low-noise amplifiers, power amplifiers and integrated transceivers. The three metal layers are encapsulated in a high performance interlayer dielectric and offer tremendous advantages for designers in its ability to provide a high level of wiring flexibility and simplicity of plastic packaging.
“Many well-established wireless products were at one time nothing more than ideas waiting to be turned into working solution,” said Mike Peters, director of marketing for TriQuint’s commercial foundry. “This joint AWR/TriQuint program offers companies with limitless ideas but limited resources an opportunity to bring an idea to life. We are excited to provide new customers with the opportunity to explore the value proposition GaAs offers for the development of wireless applications.”
"Every MMIC design team strives to get its creations completed on time with the highest level of performance, and providing EDA tools to make this happen has been AWR’s focus since its inception,” said Sherry Hess, vice president of marketing at AWR. “We believe Project JumpStart is a terrific incentive for MMIC designers to experience the unique combination of AWR’s powerful tools and TriQuint’s exceptional foundry services, with no risk and at virtually no cost.”