Mentor Graphics Corp. announced that Widex, a leader in digital hearing aid technology, has used the entire set of analog and mixed-signal simulator tools (Eldo®, Eldo RF™, Questa® ADMS and ADiT™) to successfully verify and produce its most complex wireless chip to date.

Digital hearing aid systems are complex battery-operated systems, including sophisticated DSP, memory and analog/digital converters. In the recently-announced series from Widex, they have introduced a new, high-end family of products with wireless functions.

The wireless chip set includes about 500K digital gates using multiple power supply domains, where the interaction with analog and RF blocks is extremely complex, particularly during the booting sequence of the chip. Widex’s primary motivation for adopting a full, mixed-signal verification methodology using Mentor tools was to ensure all mixed-signal interconnections were accurately verified through simulation.

“Our investment in a new methodology encompassing full mixed-signal and RF verification using the Mentor simulation suite paid off immediately,” said Morten Kroman, Vice President Research and Development at Widex. “For the first time we were able to completely verify this next-generation wireless chip prior to manufacturing.” The design team at Widex in Denmark employed a whole range of simulation technology, including using the powerful Harmonic Balance engine of the Eldo RF tool to fine tune oscillators and PLLs, as well as top-level mixed signal simulations combining Verilog and VHDL with SPICE and fast-SPICE descriptions.

“Working very closely with our most demanding customers, we have created what we believe is the number one mixed-signal and RF IC verification environment on the market,” said Robert Hum, Vice President and General Manager of the Deep Sub Micron (DSM) division at Mentor Graphics. “We are delighted when we can work with customers that use our technology to the fullest, and help them bring their products to market as quickly as possible while keeping them at the forefront of mixed-signal/RF technology.”