EDA / IC Design

Electronic Design Automation (EDA) is the logical capability of designing, verifying, and signing off integrated circuits and printed-circuit boards through specialized tooling — schematic capture, simulation, synthesis, place-and-route, formal and functional verification, DRC/LVS, and tape-out. The EDA tier is largely separate from the mechanical PLM stack, but converges with it for system-level packaging, thermal/EMI co-simulation, and the ECAD↔MCAD interface on PCBs.

What it covers

• IC design — RTL synthesis, place-and-route, timing closure, physical verification.
• PCB design — schematic capture, layout, signal/power integrity, design rule checks.
• Verification — functional, formal, low-power, and post-silicon.
• Sign-off — DRC, LVS, electromigration, IR-drop.
• ECAD↔MCAD bridge — co-design for thermal, mechanical fit, and EMI.

Relationships (see sidebar)

• Supports the Detailed Design, CAE Analysis, and Prototyping and Validation processes.
• Implemented by systems like Siemens EDA (formerly Mentor Graphics).
• Major neighbors outside this KB include Cadence and Synopsys.