Mirafra has provided consultancy in niche areas of Mixed Signal ASIC tape-out, Specialized UPF based Optimization solutions for Low Power mobile chips on 45nm with complicated requirements for switched power, isolation & retention and Identification of the right architecture for a next generation mobile chip with very aggressive power specifications.

Mirafra has worked extensively on 45nm technologies. Mirafra has four successful tape-outs in various nodes.

1. Touch Screen Application Chip Tapeout

The Customer : Customer is the leader in capacitive touch sensing solutions, touchscreen solutions, powered by Programmable-System-on-Chip technology.

The Application: Implementation & tapeout of a mixed signal ultra low power chip for touch screen application. The chip had a microcontroller and programmable logic with analog components like transmit and receive channels, SAR ADC, DAC and on-chip power regulators.

Mirafra's responsibility:

• Implemented complete Netlist-to-GDSII for design with several Sleep modes and Voltage Islands for ‘ Always ON ' and ‘Switch-able' domains.
• Successfully handled the floorplan challenges due to the presence of analog blocks with stringent interface requirements.
• For switch-able blocks ‘State Retention' logic placement, secondary power planning and ‘Always-ON' synthesis were done.
• Accommodated several ECOs due to functional bugs and power domain related bugs till the last moment
• Innovative methodology was designed to bring the Analog routing information from custom layout to the PnR tool.
• Resolved dynamic IR drop issues due to the high switching clock buffers
• The chip was successfully taped out within 5 weeks of receiving the final synthesized netlist. It met all the requirements of Low Power implementation.

Tools used : ICC, PTSI (Synopsys), Caliber ( Mentor ), Virtuoso (Cadence)

Engagement Model : A team of 2 people for 2.5 months onsite based on T&M (Time & Material).

2. GSM/3G ASIC Implementation

The Customer : Customer is a major mobile maker

The Application: Physical Implementation of a core module and the full-chip of an advanced ASIC (on 45nm) for GSM/3G mobile application. The full chip had multiple modes of operation and multiple domains of switched power supply.

Mirafra's responsibility

• Complete ownership of Synthesis, LEC, DFT, STA/constraints management, CTS & P&R
• Closely worked with the RTL designers to fine-tune RTL/constraints for the best performance

Tools used : DC, PT/PTSI, DFT Compiler, Formality (Synopsys), Talus (Magma), Spyglass (Atrenta)

Engagement Model : A team of 3 people for 4 months onsite based on T&M (Time & Material).

3. Setting up UPF Based Flow for Soft-IP for Mobile Application

The Customer: Customer is a major mobile maker

The Application: Development of a production worthy UPF based Implementation Flow for a soft-ip for mobile 3G/GSM application.

Mirafra's responsibility:

• Developed flow incorporating a common UPF for RTL verification and implementation
• Handled the complexities arising from multiple power domains with strict requirements for isolation/switching and retention
• Targeted the flow for lower power optimizations
• Generic flow capable of handling complicated power routing and rail connections

Tools used : Talus (Magma)

Engagement Model: A Team of 2 people for 3 months onsite based on T&M (Time & Material).

4. Consultancy for Selecting Right Architecture for Next Generation Mobile Chip

The Customer: Customer is a major mobile maker

The Application: Provided consultancy in selecting the right architecture for a future next generation mobile chip. Multiple architectures were available to choose from and the right one was chosen based on a number of parameters like power, TAT, area and timing etc.

Mirafra's responsibility

• Did extensive experiments on multiple architectures to come up with the right recommendation.
• Generated detailed statistics on varied parameters like power, TAT, area and timing etc
• A huge stake put on us by the customer – lot of the future direction and production of customer depend on this consultancy project

Engagement Model: 1 person for 3 months onsite based on T&M (Time & Material).