Company · EDA Tools & Flows
Silvaco
A mid-size EDA supplier known for TCAD process and device simulation, along with analog custom design tools, SPICE modelling and semiconductor IP. Its TCAD products are widely used in universities and process development groups.
- Also known as
- Silvaco Group, SVCO
- Type
- Company
- Domain
- EDA Tools & Flows, EDA industry
Notes
Founded in 1984 and listed on Nasdaq in 2024, it is one of the few independent EDA companies to reach public markets recently.
Overview
Silvaco is an American supplier of semiconductor design software and IP, best known for its TCAD tools that simulate how chips are manufactured and how individual devices behave, alongside circuit simulation, analogue and custom IC design tools and licensed design IP. Founded in 1984 and based in Santa Clara, California, the company trades on Nasdaq as Silvaco Group, Inc. under the ticker SVCO. Its chief executive since August 2025 is Walden C. Rhines, who previously led Mentor Graphics.
How it works
Silvaco organises its products into two business units. The manufacturing-focused unit covers TCAD, with process simulation (Victory Process), device simulation (Victory Device), atomistic simulation and device characterisation and modelling (Utmost IV), together with tools for lithography, plasma and photonics simulation. It also offers Fab Technology Co-Optimization (FTCO), which applies the same physics-based simulation, through AI-accelerated models, to help fab and process engineers predict outcomes without running extra wafer lots.
The design-focused unit covers circuit simulation with the SmartSpice family, analogue and custom IC design tools such as layout editing, physical verification, parasitic extraction and reduction, and a catalogue of licensed semiconductor IP. That IP includes interface and I/O blocks, standard cell libraries, memory compilers, AMBA bus IP and, since Silvaco brought the company into the group, Mixel's MIPI physical layer IP.
TCAD sits earlier in the flow than most EDA software. Process and device engineers use it to explore how changes in implants, anneals, layer thicknesses or device geometry will affect transistor behaviour, and the results feed into device models used later in circuit design. Silvaco targets markets such as power devices, displays, photonics and logic and memory, and its tools are widely used in teaching; the company says they are used at more than 200 universities.
Examples
- A power device team simulating a new gallium nitride transistor structure in device simulation before building test wafers.
- A process engineer using process simulation to predict how a change in implant dose will shift a transistor's threshold voltage.
- A university course in semiconductor devices using Silvaco TCAD under the company's university programme.
- An SoC team licensing Mixel MIPI PHY IP, now part of Silvaco, for a camera or display interface.
Why it matters
Related terms
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Skills
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