Cadence acquires DFM tool vendor Clear Shape

In the acquisition, Cadence picks up roughly 45 new employees and two technologies: Clear Shapes’ InShape Lithography Process checking tool and Outperform.

By Michael Santarini, Senior Editor -- EDN, 8/16/2007

Cadence Design Systems has acquired DFM tool vendor Clear Shape Technology for an undisclosed amount.

In the acquisition, Cadence picks up roughly 45 new employees and two technologies: Clear Shapes’ InShape Lithography Process checking tool and Outperform. The OutPerform checks for timing and leakage parametric hotspots in designs and InShape is a model based DRC/LVS double checker that identifies structures that proactively will cause problems downstream in RET, OPC, mask, etch, and lithography. Both Clear Shape technologies were finalists in EDN’s 2006 Innovation awards.

“As customers move to 65-nm and 45-nm, we are starting to see real challenges in the lithographical area that have traditionally been solved by manufacturing OPC tools, were able to correct things well enough so that you could print them and get something that is pretty close to what you laid out,” said Mike McAweeney, vice president of DFM marketing at Cadence. “We’re getting to the point now at 65-nm and 45-nm where, because there is a disparity in the wavelength of light relative to the geometries printed, there’s a big difference there: What actually gets printed can be significantly different than what you laid out. What we see from a lot of customers is they’ve moved to a more model-based lithographic approach on the design side.”

McAweeney said Cadence started collaborating with Clear Shape a year and half ago at mutual customer sites. “We started to see that Clear Shape’s technology allows users to model and understand lithographic effects, do it in a time frame that is reasonable from a user’s perspective, is accurate and understands electrical performance so that users not only understand the functional yield limiters due to things like open and shorts, but also what’s the timing and power impact of lithographical effects. It became pretty compelling.”

Prior to the acquisition, the two companies worked to create interfaces between their respective tools; now the tools will be tightly integrated. McAweeney said that customers are starting to look for integrated flows. Indeed at the 45-nm node, the big EDA companies are starting to integrate DFM technologies into their flows and are even trying to make the flows correct by construction, burying the DFM functionality into existing tools so users find DFM minimally invasive. McAweeney said that’s certainly the case for Cadence, too, and Clear Shape’s technologies will become integrated in the flow, however, Cadence also plans on offering the Clear Shape tools as separate tools for those users who are using or want to use Clear Shape in mixed vendor tool flows.

Atul Sharan, president and CEO of Clear Shape, said that current Clear Shape customers will now receive even better support. Sharan said the company agreed to the acquisition because DFM tools will need to be integrated into correct by construction flows and Cadence’s large sales channel will help bring Clear Shape’s innovations to a larger user base. “Overtime, I think we’ll see the implementation flows that ultimately win are the tool that can do this fast correct by construction,” said Sharan. “We’ve been working with Cadence and it is really the leader on the implementation side so it was an obvious fit.”

Cadence’s acquisition of Clear Shape likely means that Clear Shape’s hot competitor Blaze DFM has fewer exit strategy options: go public or, more likely, get acquired by one of Cadence’s competitors.

The price and terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the acquisition is closed.