Agilent Technologies 3-D EM Simulation Software Selected By STMicroelectronics For Developing Integrated Passive Devices

Agilent Technologies Inc. recently announced that STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has selected Agilent's Electromagnetic Professional (EMPro) software for use in development of integrated passive devices (IPDs). ST's Protection & IPAD business unit in Tours, France is handling the development.

The use of IPD technology is a growing trend in the development of RF systems for mobile applications with a frequency range of 800 MHz and above. Compared to traditional surface mount device technology, IPD technology results in a dramatic size reduction and enables more consistent, reliable performance. Inductors, capacitors, resistors, baluns, couplers, stubs and other devices available in IPD technologies are the elemental components used to design complex analog filters, combiners, di/triplexers and power adaptation stages.

"Despite its benefits, IPD technology is not without its design challenges," said Jan Van Hese, R&D project manager at Agilent. "One such challenge is to reduce the number of costly prototype iterations. To do so, designers require powerful full-wave 3-D electromagnetic solvers to accurately predict the frequency response of IPD designs in various environments, optimize those designs and ensure first-run silicon success."

"Agilent EMPro couples accuracy and speed that underlie best-in-class commercial solutions, with design-flow integration and a powerful Python-based programming environment to automate the design process," said Philippe Leduc, mathematical engineering expert at STMicroelectronics. "In collaboration with Agilent, we incorporated EMPro into our internal design flow called VLE2EMS [Virtuoso Layout Editor to Electromagnetic Solvers], which generates ready-to-solve EM projects directly from Cadence Virtuoso."

More information on EMPro is available at www.agilent.com/find/eesof-empro. An image of the software is available atwww.agilent.com/find/EMPro2012_images. Visit the Agilent YouTube network at www.youtube.com/AgilentTM to see latest products and applications videos in electronic design and measurement.

About Agilent EEsof EDA Software
Agilent EEsof EDA is the leading supplier of electronic design automation software for microwave, RF, high-frequency, high-speed digital, RF system, electronic system level, circuit, 3-D electromagnetic, physical design and device-modeling applications. For more information, visit www.agilent.com/find/eesof.

About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in chemical analysis, life sciences, diagnostics, electronics and communications. The company's 20,500 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries. Agilent had revenues of $6.9B in fiscal 2012. For more information, visit www.agilent.com.