Cadence Design Systems > Case Studies > Sharp Corporation Accelerates CMOS Image Sensor Production with Cadence Solutions

Sharp Corporation Accelerates CMOS Image Sensor Production with Cadence Solutions

Technology Category

Sensors - Flow Meters
Sensors - Liquid Detection Sensors

Applicable Industries

Electronics
Equipment & Machinery

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Time Sensitive Networking
Visual Quality Detection

Services

System Integration
Testing & Certification

About The Customer

Sharp Corporation is a Japan-based company known globally for its electronic products and technologies. The company's product range includes solar panels, audio-visual entertainment equipment, LCD panels, projectors, microwave ovens, complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensors, charge-coupled device (CCD) sensors, and Flash memory. Sharp is dedicated to improving people’s lives through the use of advanced technology and a commitment to design innovation, quality, and value. Recently, the company embarked on designing a new consumer electronics CMOS image sensor, an active pixel sensor with circuitry that converts light energy to voltage, and circuitry that converts voltage to digital image data.

The Challenge

Sharp Corporation, a global electronics company based in Japan, was faced with the challenge of speeding up the time to market for a new CMOS image sensor without compromising on product quality. The market for sensors and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) devices was rapidly expanding, driven by the increasing demand for user-friendly consumer electronics in various sectors including automobiles, computers, medical equipment, and portable products such as media players, tablets, and smartphones. This put immense pressure on Sharp to produce highly differentiated products within increasingly tight timeframes. The design challenge was to address timing and routability convergence challenges.

The Solution

To overcome these challenges, Sharp decided to adopt the Cadence® Encounter® RTL-to-GDSII flow to develop its CMOS image sensors. This included standardizing on Encounter RTL Compiler, Encounter Conformal® Equivalence Checker, Encounter Digital Implementation System, and Encounter Test. The Encounter RTL-to-GDSII flow provided Sharp with fast and flexible feasibility analysis, giving its design engineers an early and accurate view of whether the complex design would meet their targets and be physically realized. One key benefit of the Encounter RTL-to-GDSII flow was physical-aware register-transfer level (RTL) synthesis. This takes physical layout information into account to address timing and congestion issues much earlier in the design process than is possible when using a conventional flow. Encounter Test On-Product Clock Generation (OPCG) inserted automatically into the design netlist through RTL Compiler synthesis enabled the Sharp design team an at-speed ATPG test flow thus improving overall test quality.

Operational Impact

By using the Encounter RTL-to-GDSII flow and its integrated product technologies, Sharp was able to achieve a 2x faster turnaround time compared to its previous digital flow. This significantly sped up the time to market for their new CMOS image sensor. In addition to this, the design team experienced higher quality results in timing, area, and productivity. The Encounter Digital Implementation System offered the Sharp design team comprehensive, advanced technology to complete digital implementation from netlist synthesis to P&R, including concurrent in-design validation. The success of this project has led Sharp to plan on continuing to use Cadence solutions for upcoming projects.

Quantitative Benefit