Cadence University Program

Cadence University Program Member

The University of Waterloo is a member of the Cadence University Program and this web page will outline how Cadence products are used on our campus. This web page only describes the courses and research projects that use Cadence products, other software may also be used but that is irrelevant to the topic of this page. Remember: Cadence is the name of a company - students do not "learn Cadence", they learn about Cadence products.

Cadence tools are used in undergraduate and graduate courses to demonstrate the principles involved in integrated circuit design.

Undergraduate Courses

  • ECE 445: Integrated Digital Electronics (Digital IC)
  • ECE 444: Integrated Analog Electronics (Custom IC)
  • ECE 455: Embedded Software (Custom IC)

Graduate Courses

  • ECE 636: Advanced Analog Integrated Circuits
  • ECE 637: Design of VLSI MOS Integrated Circuits
  • ECE 734: Low-Voltage CMOS/BiCMOS VLSI Circuits and Systems
  • ECE 730 Topic 15: High-Performance Integrated Circuits
  • ECE 738: Low Power VLSI Circuits for Wireless Communication
  • ECE 740: Topics in CMOS Sensor Microsystems

Research

  • Mark Aagaard (Digital IC)
    We use Cadence First Encounter for physical synthesis, timing analysis, and power analysis for cryptographic and other circuits.
  • Slim Boumaiza, Emerging Radio Systems Research Group (Custom IC, Digital IC)
    Our group uses Cadence tools to simulate and implement radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC) for high-performance and reconfigurable wireless transmitters. This covers in particular and not exclusively:
    • Fully digital pulse width modulator for reconfigurable transmitter
    • Digitally controlled 60GHz phase shifter
    • High efficiency integrated power amplifiers
    We also have used Cadence tools to simulate RFICs in a system-level context using Agilent Advanced Design System (ADS) and the Agilent RFIC Dynamic Link facilities.
  • Vincent Gaudet (Custom IC, Digital IC)
    Cadence tool are used in the following projects:
    • Design of energy-efficient analog and digital integrated circuits
    • Design of integrated circuits for forward error control (LDPC and Turbo codes) in modern communication systems
    • Design of biomedical circuits for implantable neural recording prostheses
  • Karim Karim (Custom IC, Digital IC)
    Cadence tools are used in the following projects:
    • Selective photon counting pixel and pixel gamma and x-ray photon imaging arrays
    • Direct detection CMOS active and passive pixel sensor arrays
    • Amorphous silicon multi-mode pixel amplifiers
  • Amir Khandani (Custom IC)
    Cadence tools are used to implement a decoder for LDPC codes.
  • Bosco Leung (Custom IC)
    Current research focuses on VLSI circuits for wireless communications. Two projects that use Cadence tools are an A/D converter and a phase-locked loop circuit.
  • Peter Levine, Bioelectronic Systems Laboratory (Custom IC, SPB(PCB))
    We are using Cadence software to design CMOS-integrated circuits and sensors for DNA, protein, and cellular assays.
  • John Long (Custom IC, SPB(PCB))
    Cadence products are used in analog and mixed-signal IC design, low-power and broadband transceiver design (RFICs) for highly integrated wireless applications, energy-efficient wireless sensor design, mm-wave integrated circuit design (MMICs), and the design of electronics for high-speed data communications systems.
    My students will probably also use it for EM simulation (via ADS Dynamic Link or Integrand software) and PCB layout (Allegro).
  • Raafat Mansour (Custom IC, SPB(PCB))
    Cadence tools are used to implement the following:
    • Multi-band CMOS amplifiers with adaptive MEMS impedance matching networks
    • Integrated CMOS-MEMS devices for radio-frequency applications including varactors, tunable filters and RF-MEMS switches
  • David Nairn (Custom IC, Digital IC)
    Cadence products are being used to design, simulate and layout analog and mixed signal circuits. Current research is focused on new circuit techniques for improving the performance of analog-to-digital converters.
  • Manoj Sachdev (Custom IC)
    Cadence products are being used to design, simulate and layout digital and mixed-signal circuits for low power, high performance applications.
  • Safieddin (Ali) Safavi-Naeini (Custom IC, SPB(PCB))
    Cadence tools are being used in the following projects:
    • Intelligent radio front-end for wireless communication and sensors
    • Millimeter-wave integrated smart radio-on-chip (millimeter wave phase-shifters, low-noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, mixwers, ...)
    • Antenna-on-chip for microwave/millimeter-waves
    • Optical/THz MEMS for switches and variable delay lines
    • Multi-layer packaging service for integrated adaptive transceiver
  • Lan Wei (Custom IC)
    Cadence tools are being used for digital, analog and mixed-signal circuit simulation with CMOS and other emerging device technologies.

Cadence is a registered trademark of Cadence Design Systems, Inc., 2655 Seely Avenue, San Jose, CA 95134

This page maintained by:
Phil Regier
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
email: peregier@uwaterloo.ca

This file last modified on March 13, 2019.