Siemens, Samsung Foundry Advance EDA Collaboration

Siemens and Samsung Foundry are continuing their collaboration on advanced semiconductor design and manufacturing workflows, with a focus on electronic design automation, photonic integrated circuit verification, design-for-test, advanced packaging, analog and RF verification, and digital implementation.

The companies highlighted the collaboration at Samsung SAFE Forum 2026, where Samsung Foundry and ecosystem partners presented design enablement technologies for advanced semiconductor development. The work supports Samsung Foundry’s advanced process platforms, including next generation 2nm technologies, and is intended to help fabless semiconductor companies address increasing design complexity across leading-edge IC development.

Through the collaboration, Siemens continues to qualify and deploy its electronic design automation software across Samsung Foundry process technologies. The Siemens portfolio involved in the work includes tools for design, verification, simulation, test, silicon manufacturing enablement, and advanced packaging implementation. According to the source announcement, the joint engineering work is focused on improving design quality, accelerating time to market, and increasing confidence in first-pass silicon success at Samsung’s advanced nodes.

“Samsung Foundry continues to work closely with Siemens to support customers with robust, manufacturing-ready design flows across advanced process technologies,” said Hyung-Ock Kim, vice president and head of the Foundry Design Technology Team, Samsung Electronics. “Through our collaboration within the SAFE ecosystem, we are aligning proven EDA solutions with our process platforms to help customers address increasing design complexity, improve verification confidence, and accelerate innovation from design through manufacturing.”

“Our continued collaboration with Samsung Foundry reflects Siemens’ commitment to delivering production-ready EDA solutions aligned with the world’s most advanced process technologies,” said Ankur Gupta, executive vice president, IC Portfolio, Siemens EDA Siemens Digital Industries Software. “By working closely with Samsung, we are helping mutual customers to manage design complexity and bring innovative products to market with greater confidence.”

A key area of the collaboration involves photonic integrated circuit verification. Siemens and Samsung Foundry are expanding work around PIC verification using Siemens Calibre software. The joint solution supports equation-based design rule checking, curvilinear layout-versus-schematic verification, and advanced pattern matching. These capabilities are designed to support verification of complex curvilinear geometries and manufacturable photonic integrated circuit designs within Samsung Foundry process flows.

The companies are also working together on physical verification and layout optimization. Siemens’ Calibre nmPlatform software, including nmDRC, nmLVS, PERC, xACT, and Calibre DesignEnhancer, has been qualified for Samsung Foundry processes. Samsung Foundry is also working with Siemens on power-grid robustness automation, including plans for the official release of Calibre DesignEnhancer Pge for 2nm. The technology is intended to automatically enhance power-grid layouts and help mitigate electromigration and IR drop issues through intelligent layout optimization.

For design-for-test and yield analysis, Siemens’ Tessent portfolio is being used to support scalable DFT methodologies for advanced-node yield analysis. The collaboration includes defect-oriented test strategies and physical failure analysis intended to help reduce defective parts per million. Siemens noted the establishment of a high-resolution chain diagnosis reference flow at Samsung Foundry using Tessent HiRes Chain Diagnosis, supporting cell-aware, layout-aware, and silicon-proven global signal diagnosis for improved failure isolation.

Advanced packaging is another major focus of the collaboration. Samsung Foundry has adopted Siemens solutions to support its 2.3D Cube-E advanced package platform. Siemens Innovator3D IC Integrator enables early-stage full-project floor planning and rapid response to design changes, while Innovator3D IC Layout automates daisy-chain netlist generation for designs exceeding two million pins. Physical verification, including design rule checking and layout-versus-schematic verification, is performed using Calibre 3DStack and Innovator3D IC for complex 2.5D and 3D IC implementations.

For analog, RF, and library verification, Siemens’ Solido Simulation Suite has been qualified for SPICE-accurate verification across Samsung Foundry process technologies. The collaboration includes first-time qualifications for automotive applications on 4nm and 2nm, along with support for third-generation 4nm and second-generation 2nm technologies. Siemens also noted updated model support spanning FD-SOI, FinFET, and MBCFET technologies from 18nm through 2nm.

In digital implementation, Siemens Aprisa software is fully certified for Samsung Foundry leading-edge process nodes. Through the ongoing collaboration, Siemens EDA and Samsung Foundry continue to optimize performance, power, and area, supporting design closure for next-generation semiconductor designs on Samsung Foundry processes. The collaboration reflects the growing importance of foundry-certified EDA flows as semiconductor designs become more complex across advanced-node logic, AI hardware, automotive electronics, photonic integrated circuits, and multi-die packaging architectures.

About Samsung Foundry

Samsung Foundry is the dedicated foundry business of Samsung Electronics, providing semiconductor manufacturing services, process technologies, design enablement, IP support, and advanced packaging solutions for fabless semiconductor companies and integrated device manufacturers. The company offers a broad process technology portfolio spanning mature, specialty, and advanced logic nodes, with official Samsung Foundry materials identifying capabilities across technologies such as FD-SOI, FinFET, gate-all-around nanosheet technology, RF, eNVM, high voltage, BCD, CMOS image sensors, and fingerprint sensors. Samsung Foundry also provides integrated package solutions, including 2.5D and 3D packaging technologies, to support complex semiconductor designs for applications including high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, automotive electronics, mobile devices, and other advanced electronic systems.  For more information, please click here.

About Siemens Digital Industries Software 

Siemens Digital Industries Software, a business of Siemens Digital Industries, provides software, hardware, and services that support digital transformation across product design, engineering, manufacturing, and lifecycle management. Its portfolio includes electronic design automation, simulation, industrial software, automation-related digital tools, and Siemens Xcelerator, an open digital business platform that brings together Siemens and certified partner technologies for industrial applications. Within the semiconductor industry, Siemens EDA provides software for IC design, verification, test, semiconductor manufacturing enablement, advanced packaging, and related workflows used by chip designers, foundries, and electronics manufacturers.  To learn more, please click here. 

Source/Photo Credit: Siemens Digital Industries Software (Siemens Digital Industries)

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