Unwanted substrate couplings can cause parasitic effects that are damaging to overall performance. X-FAB Silicon Foundries introduced SubstrateXtractor, presented as the first commercially-available tool dedicated to addressing the simulation of large-signal substrate parasitic effects. Working in conjunction with X-FAB's established simulation libraries, it allows engineers to investigate where potential substrate coupling issues could occur and make the changes necessary to eliminate them.

The solution enables engineers to gain full visibility of all the active and passive elements within the substrate, and be able to experiment with different simulations in order to find a design concept that delivers maximum substrate coupling immunity within the project's particular parametric constraints. Furthermore, they are able to determine the minimum number of substrate contacts and guard rings needed for a project, no matter how complex and sophisticated. 

This functionality will be integrated into X-FAB's process design kit and made available for use with the company's XH018 high voltage 0.18µm mixed-signal CMOS offering. A version for the power management process XP018 will soon follow.

For more information, visit www.xfab.com.