Snowbush was asked to port the analog front-end of a customer's key product. However, when the end user demanded better performance and lower power, the project changed.
Our customer is a market leader that produces semiconductor products in the tens of millions for a computer and server application. The analog front-end for these products is complex, high-speed and critical. Snowbush was engaged to port the customer's latest AFE design to a deep sub-micron process - a substantial undertaking in itself. However, early in the project, the end user demanded better performance and lower power, and the scope of the project changed dramatically.
Instead of simply porting the design, Snowbush re-architected key blocks to increase the range of operating frequencies, reduce power dissipation significantly and add new features and modes. To do this, a large team from Snowbush worked collaboratively with the customers' engineers, including system architects, digital IC designers, physical designers, process and CAD engineers, test engineers and project managers. As part of the work, Snowbush developed a silicon validation plan and test automation methodology that provided comprehensive silicon validation data of the AFE and its many-sub-blocks in just a few weeks.
The end result? The first silicon was a success and the design is now moving through qualification to production. One of the customer's senior engineers described it as "the best AFE in years" and Snowbush has been retained to design the next generation product.
Case Studies
A Port Becomes a Re-Design
A New Approach to Designing Power Management ICs
When Snowbush was hired to design a power management IC for mobile applications, our goal was not only to provide a new design, but a new design methodology.
Our customer had been in the business of designing and manufacturing power management ICs for many years. But with the explosion of mobile devices, both the performance demands and the complexity of these ICs have been growing - while the availability of excellent design engineers is limited. Faced with a staff shortage and needing a more sophisticated design and project engineering methodology, the customer hired Snowbush to design its new product and to introduce a new design methodology.
The goal was a power management IC for mobile applications that operated with increased efficiency at higher switching frequencies. Utilizing system modeling techniques common in the design of communications ICs, Snowbush provided a clear picture of the design and performance choices and trade-offs that allowed the customer's marketing and engineering staff to settle on the best possible product.
The end result? All key design specifications were met in first silicon. Snowbush was asked not only to lead the design of next generation products, but to introduce its system-level engineering and project management methodology into the customer's engineering processes.
Our customer had been in the business of designing and manufacturing power management ICs for many years. But with the explosion of mobile devices, both the performance demands and the complexity of these ICs have been growing - while the availability of excellent design engineers is limited. Faced with a staff shortage and needing a more sophisticated design and project engineering methodology, the customer hired Snowbush to design its new product and to introduce a new design methodology.
The goal was a power management IC for mobile applications that operated with increased efficiency at higher switching frequencies. Utilizing system modeling techniques common in the design of communications ICs, Snowbush provided a clear picture of the design and performance choices and trade-offs that allowed the customer's marketing and engineering staff to settle on the best possible product.
The end result? All key design specifications were met in first silicon. Snowbush was asked not only to lead the design of next generation products, but to introduce its system-level engineering and project management methodology into the customer's engineering processes.
"Tell Me You Can Deliver in 4 Months"
The customer's timetable was aggressive, but essential: "We need a 6-bit 2.5GHz ADC and a low-jitter PLL to clock it, and we need it in four months". Snowbush delivered the design on time, but did even more to ensure the customer could keep its schedule.
It was late March. Our customer, a developer of cutting-edge wireless networking semiconductor products, needed a 6-bit 2.5GHz ADC and low-jitter PLL designed, verified and delivered for an early August shuttle. The entire product development process depended on timely execution, but performance was also essential. The customer's system design would not work if the ADC's effective number of bits (ENOB) was not high, either because of the ADC itself or the clock provided by the PLL.
We developed a detailed, integrated project schedule showing all tasks to be completed by Snowbush and the customer in order to deliver the ADC and PLL on time. Very quickly, we were able to build a system model of the ADC and PLL that showed that the architecture to be used would deliver the necessary performance. All of the component tasks were executed on a timely basis, and it became apparent in the early stages of the project that the delivery date would be achieved.
But Snowbush was able to do even more to help our customer keep its schedule. Their engineers were finding it challenging to develop the rest of the product and assemble the test chip for the ADC and PLL. To help, SNOWBUSH assumed the task of integrating the ADC and PLL on the test chip and even provided an on-site physical designer to help get the chip to the foundry.
The end result? The ADC and PLL were delivered on time and the test chip was ready for fabrication on the August shuttle. Snowbush was engaged to provide further design support for the product.
It was late March. Our customer, a developer of cutting-edge wireless networking semiconductor products, needed a 6-bit 2.5GHz ADC and low-jitter PLL designed, verified and delivered for an early August shuttle. The entire product development process depended on timely execution, but performance was also essential. The customer's system design would not work if the ADC's effective number of bits (ENOB) was not high, either because of the ADC itself or the clock provided by the PLL.
We developed a detailed, integrated project schedule showing all tasks to be completed by Snowbush and the customer in order to deliver the ADC and PLL on time. Very quickly, we were able to build a system model of the ADC and PLL that showed that the architecture to be used would deliver the necessary performance. All of the component tasks were executed on a timely basis, and it became apparent in the early stages of the project that the delivery date would be achieved.
But Snowbush was able to do even more to help our customer keep its schedule. Their engineers were finding it challenging to develop the rest of the product and assemble the test chip for the ADC and PLL. To help, SNOWBUSH assumed the task of integrating the ADC and PLL on the test chip and even provided an on-site physical designer to help get the chip to the foundry.
The end result? The ADC and PLL were delivered on time and the test chip was ready for fabrication on the August shuttle. Snowbush was engaged to provide further design support for the product.