ANSYS has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Helic, the leading provider of electromagnetic crosstalk solutions for systems on chips (SoCs). The acquisition of Helic, combined with ANSYS' flagship electromagnetic and semiconductor solvers, will provide a comprehensive solution for on-chip, 3D integrated circuit and chip-package-system electromagnetics and noise analysis. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019. Management will provide further details regarding the transaction and its impact on the 2019 financial outlook after the closing.
Megatrends like 5G, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing are driving more complex semiconductor chip design, including the increased use of on-chip signal frequencies past 2 GHz and complex multiple silicon die in a single package. These increasingly complex designs often lead to electromagnetic crosstalk, when unwanted interference caused by electric and magnetic fields of one signal interferes with another signal. Helic's solutions help top semiconductor companies debug and analyze electromagnetic crosstalk issues in their advanced SoC designs and reduce the risk of silicon failure. When combined with ANSYS' solutions for electromagnetics and power-integrity noise analysis, engineers can deploy an electromagnetic-aware design methodology to design devices in all advanced nodes, optimize the die size and precisely capture electromagnetic and parasitic effects from direct current up to 110 GHz.
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Helic has more than 50 employees, including locations in Greece, Japan, and Ireland. Its comprehensive product suite includes electromagnetic modeling and simulation for highly complex circuits for sub-10 nanometer technologies. Helic products have been successfully deployed by worldwide customers in applications ranging from radio-frequency wireless transceivers, graphics processing units, high-speed I/Os in multi-core processors and image sensors and other internet of things connected devices.
