Shahriar Moinian of Broadcom Wins Si2 Pinnacle Award
Shahriar Moinian, distinguished engineer at Broadcom Corp., has won the quarterly Silicon Integration Initiative Pinnacle Award, recognizing volunteers for their exceptional contributions to Si2’s success as a leading semiconductor research and development joint venture.
A 30-year veteran of the semiconductor industry, Moinian is chair of the Si2 Compact Model Coalition Model Quality Assurance and Release Work Group. As a consultant to CMC model developers and EDA tool vendors, he clarifies and solves issues uncovered during testing of each standard model release. For 29 years, CMC has offered semiconductor manufacturers, designers, and simulation tool providers an avenue to collectively fund, develop, and optimize standard compact SPICE models and interfaces to promote simulation tool interoperability.
“The QA Work Group is vital to CMC’s success. It ensures that CMC-approved models meet the standards used throughout the semiconductor industry,” said Robert Aslett, Si2 president, and CEO. “Shahriar is personally involved in much of the work carried out by the work group. That includes setting up standards for the model release flow, establishing proper QA test suites and methodologies during testing, and working with Si2 to set up a validation effort to ensure consistent results across multiple EDA vendor tools.”
His most recent project, scheduled for approval this year, will standardize quality tests at the device level to ensure the models do not cause unexpected behavior or convergence issues when used in a circuit simulation tool.
Moinian received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California with a thesis on process-derived bipolar compact modeling. His previous industry experience was with Lucent, Bell Laboratories, Agere Systems, and LSI Logic, working on advanced passive and active device models. Since 2016, he has been working at Broadcom, focusing on advanced technology and packaging development.
The Pinnacle Award will be presented at the CMC quarterly meeting scheduled for March 21-22 in Grenoble, France.
About the Compact Model Coalition (CMC)
The Si2 CMC provides semiconductor manufacturers, designers, and simulation tool providers a means to pool resources to fund the standardization and optimization of standard compact (SPICE) models and standard interfaces to promote simulation tool interoperability. CMC funds and supports select university and national laboratory compact model developers. The CMC quality assurance program ensures that simulations are accurate and uniform across different vendors.
About the Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2)
Si2 provides collaborative technology and services that enable advanced semiconductor design integration, leading to industry-accepted standards. Si2 offers these standards, technology, and services to all interested organizations and individuals at a fair and reasonable cost.
Si2 grew out of the CAD Frameworks Initiative that began in 1988. It is a nonprofit R&D joint venture funded by member companies. Si2’s collective environment is utilized by engineers from over 60 design, EDA supplier, or foundry member companies. Engineers from member companies work with academic partners to co-develop solutions in a way that permits innovation while guaranteeing compatibility.