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tm123

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Posts: 67
Chicago, IL

Experience with Silvaco SmartSpice
Dec 07^th, 2013, 9:57am

Hello All,

Just curious if anyone has experience using the Silvaco SmartSpice/SmartSpiceRF tools for circuit simulation. I believe this tool used to be called Simucad a few years ago. I am wondering if this tool could be a cheaper alternative to Cadence software for RFIC design, simulation, layout etc. From the website it seems they support a good number of PDK's from various foundries. Thanks.

Regards,
Tim

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Murat H. Eskiyerli

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Re: Experience with Silvaco SmartSpice
Reply #1 - Dec 21^st, 2013, 10:39am

I recently did a very short evaluation of Silvaco custom IC design tools. They are much more comprehensive than I expected. Unfortunately I didn't have time to try SmartSpiceRF. Will ask for another evaluation license once we approach the renewal cycle for our current tools. Licensing model is quite flexible where you acquire a certain number of tokens and could trade-off them between different tools for example by staggering the usage of tools. We haven't really gotten to the price discussion, they would be significantly cheaper than Cadence tools.

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tm123

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Posts: 67
Chicago, IL

Re: Experience with Silvaco SmartSpice
Reply #2 - Dec 22^nd, 2013, 8:21am

Hello Murat,

Thank you for your reply, it sounds like you were pleased with the capabilities of the Silvaco tool. I am very interested in hearing your thoughts on SmartSpiceRF once you have completed your evaluation.

How easy is it to get an evaluation license from Silvaco? Based on your positive comments I am considering getting one.

Thanks again,
Tim

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Murat H. Eskiyerli Ex Member	Re: Experience with Silvaco SmartSpice Reply #3 - Feb 6^th, 2014, 12:01pm Hi Tim, It depends on where you are located. We contacted the UK office and they have been very helpful. We are in the middle of testing our chip, once it is out of way, we will start the software evaluations. I will keep you updated. Regards, Murat Eskiyerli
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