Awarding Innovation
At the beginning of 2017, Tessent released an innovative and unique solution to the IC design community: Tessent™ DefectSim™, a transistor-level defect simulator for analog, mixed-signal (AMS), and non-scan digital circuits. It measures defect coverage and defect tolerance, replaces manual test coverage assessment needed to meet quality standards such as ISO 26262, and it provides objective data to guide improvements in design-for-test (DFT). Tessent DefectSim dramatically reduces SPICE simulation time compared to simulating every potential defect. The Tessent team believed that DefectSim was a breakthrough and in January 2017, the industry agreed by awarding it an Electronic Products Product of the Year.
On December 6, 2017, Tessent DefectSim won the coveted Elektra award in London for best new tool in the “Design Tools and Development Software” category, capping off a rewarding year that also saw the product as an ACE award finalist.
Presented by Electronics Weekly, the Elektra awards recognize the achievements of individuals and companies across the European electronics industry as judged by a distinguished panel of independent experts.
Stephen Sunter, the Engineering Director for Tessent Mixed-Signal DFT products, reacted to the Elektra win by stating, “This might be the first software tool developed originally to be a DFT tool and that then became a design tool too. It can simultaneously measure defect coverage of a test and defect tolerance of a circuit. Our team is delighted to receive this Elektra award as an affirmation of DefectSim’s usefulness in IC design.”
Updated November 2020:
Tessent DefectSim continues to make an impact on the industry. At the 2020 International Test Conference, Sunter won the Best Paper award for his 2019 paper “Efficient Analog Defect Simulation.”
From the ITC website:
As part of the process of encouraging and appreciating the quality of written and presented work in the technical program, ITC presents awards to authors of regular technical paper given at the conference and published in the proceedings. In the process of determining the award winning paper, the ITC awards committee considers reviews and comments from several sources including:
- comments by reviewers from the paper selection process
- responses by conference attendees as recorded on the session ratings cards
- observations and recommendations from selected ITC program committee members.
