New MEMS Design Contest Encourages Advances in MEMS Technology

Jointly sponsored by Cadence Design Systems, Coventor, X-FAB and Reutlingen University, a new MEMS Design Contest is being launched at DATE 2016. The objective of this contest is to encourage greater ingenuity with regard to the integration of MEMS devices and mixed-signal CMOS blocks. To kick off the contest, an informative session will be held in the Exhibition Theatre on Thursday, March 17, 2016 from 14:00 to 17:30 and is open to all DATE attendees free of charge.

The contest seeks companies, entrepreneurs, researchers and students from around the globe. Design teams are encouraged to propose imaginative design concepts that combine MEMS and mixed-signal technologies. The organizers will provide free training workshops to familiarize the participating teams with the design tools, design methodologies and process technologies involved.

A panel of highly experienced industry professionals and respected academics will undertake appraisal of the submissions. Each submission will be judged on the degree of innovation demonstrated in hardware and methodology, the novelty of the application and the value the design provides. Awards for the top three submissions will be presented at Cadence’s annual user conference, CDNLive EMEA 2018, in Munich and the winning team’s solution will be manufactured at X-FAB’s wafer production facilities.

“Supporting innovation and advancement in electronic design is fundamental to what this contest is all about,” said Alexander Duesener, Corporate VP EMEA of Cadence Design Systems. “Creating mixed-signal logic and MEMS designs requires a new process flow and totally new thinking. By enabling the winning design team to turn their concepts into manufactured designs, we highlight the value of MEMS and mixed-signal designs in today’s products.”

“The MEMS Design Contest calls attention to the increasing integration of MEMS and mixed-signal technologies in phones, cars and Internet of Things (IoT) devices,” said Dr. Stephen Breit, Vice President of Engineering at Coventor. “By offering design teams state-of-the-art Cadence and Coventor tools in combination with X-FAB’s latest MEMS and CMOS design kits, we hope to inspire new applications of our combined solution for efficiently designing, integrating and manufacturing MEMS and mixed-signal CMOS technologies.”

“By enabling the winning design team to turn their ideas into manufactured designs, X-FAB is highlighting the value of proven MEMS process technology and design enablement through our design kits,” added Joerg Doblaski, Director Design Support at X-FAB. “We look forward to seeing innovative designs from around the world and helping bring the best of them to life.”