Sagantec to address 20nm and 14nm silicon challenges with a new acquisition
Sagantec has acquired Dutch startup NP-Komplete Technologies BV,
based in Eindhoven, for its physical design compaction and migration solutions.
NP-Komplete Technologies (NPKT) is a provider of innovative DFM solutions, and physical design optimisation engines. The firms have been tight-lipped about the terms of the acquisition.
The Sagantec engineering team in the Netherlands is now fully integrated with the NPKT team with the combined team working together on enhancing the tools and addressing future technology challenges.
Following the acquisition, NPKT is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sagantec and is continuing to develop and provide advanced layout compaction and DFM solutions.
The NPKT migration technology is an automated layout optimisation
technology, and was designed from the ground up to address the latest
challenges of 20nm design rules and beyond. Most of the new rules are enforced
to overcome manufacturability-related challenges that impact yield.
As such, it takes a sophisticated 2D compaction technology to make necessary modifications to create a DRC clean layout. The NPKT technology has already been proven with DRC clean results at several tier-1 semiconductor companies, and used on multiple 28nm and 20nm technologies of leading-edge foundries.
The addition of this new technology and expertise enables Sagantec to better address the new challenges and overcome technology discontinuities that result from the introduction of new layers and new types of design rules associated with the 20nm process node while producing best possible quality results.
