StarIC Featured in Markt & Technik

The article positions StarIC as a Toronto-based specialist in analog and mixed-signal IP that delivers significantly higher performance than off-the-shelf blocks, helping customers differentiate their systems in speed, resolution, power, cost, or a combination of those metrics.

Co-founder and Director Michael Fulmyk describes a selective team of roughly 20 specialized analog engineers, a discovery-phase project model, and system-level modeling that de-risks ASIC development. StarIC combines custom blocks where they matter with standard IP where it is sufficient.

To expand in Europe, StarIC worked with k-d-m semiconductor consulting and appointed Redtree Solutions as its Pan-European sales representative. CEO Imran Ahmed and Redtree's Jean Marie Houillon frame the partnership as a way to bring StarIC's mixed-signal IP and ASIC capabilities to European customers in automotive, sensing, medical, audio, MEMS, power, PLL, and data-converter applications.

Fulmyk also highlights silicon photonics and chiplet interfaces as growth areas, with multiple design wins at leading companies in the photonics ecosystem.

Analog and Mixed-Signal IP

The Turbo for System Performance

October 16, 2023 | Heinz Arnold

StarIC, based in Toronto, Canada, specializes in developing analog and mixed-signal IP that is significantly more capable than standard IP. That raises overall system performance substantially and lets customers differentiate their products.

Designing analog and mixed-signal circuits requires a high degree of expertise and attention to detail to achieve the intended results. Because the number of analog designers worldwide is limited, many companies have only a few analog designers on staff, if any. They often struggle to deliver products on time with the right specifications without exceeding budget.

StarIC focuses on efficient analog and mixed-signal circuit blocks and complete ASIC designs. About 20 highly specialized analog engineers currently work for the company. "They are our core know-how, so not everyone can work for us; we are selective," says Michael Fulmyk, Director and Co-founder of StarIC. StarIC's staff have long, deep experience designing low-power analog IP blocks, and most hold doctorates. The company also maintains close ties to universities when scientific advice is needed.

Many design firms create designs and ASICs relatively quickly by using standard off-the-shelf IP and making only minor changes to meet customer requirements. That creates very low barriers to entry for competitors and leads to many redundant "me-too" products without differentiating performance or features.

"StarIC, by contrast, works hand in hand with customers to understand their requirements precisely and to find opportunities beyond template designs where system performance can be improved significantly," says Fulmyk. "Whether the advantage is higher speed, higher resolution, lower power consumption, lower cost, or a combination of those factors, we focus on understanding the key metrics and ensuring project success."

"Our own IP blocks achieve at least ten times the performance of off-the-shelf standard products. That improves the overall system enormously," Fulmyk adds. At the same time, he makes no secret of the fact that the wheel does not need to be reinvented every time. Many tasks in a design can be handled by standard IP blocks. The art lies in determining exactly where standard IP is not sufficient.

"A very important factor in developing any circuit, whether analog, digital, or mixed-signal, is a deep understanding of customer requirements so the solution can be tailored to their goals," Fulmyk says. "We begin projects with our customers in a first development phase in which both parties are involved from the start. In the discovery phase, the customer's specifications and objectives, the project timeline and budget, and the specific roles and responsibilities of the entire team are defined to ensure smooth and successful project execution."

At the beginning of the first phase of a project, customer requirements often do not yet fully align with project constraints. StarIC's lead designers and project managers then meet with the customer virtually or on site to nail down project details. "This approach has worked well for us and our customers because we can determine which projects are feasible with realistic goals, timelines, and budgets," Fulmyk explains. "At the end of the first phase, the development framework is in place with the individual milestones, and we can begin the actual design."

A typical StarIC approach is to build a system model that captures the key parameters of the project and can model end-to-end functionality. Based on their knowledge and experience, StarIC's engineers can create a system model that strikes the right balance between accuracy and performance.

The system model is the starting point during the first development phase and sets guardrails for the rest of the project. As a design nears completion, blocks in the model are replaced by their real-world schematics as needed. That lets StarIC engineers quickly and accurately identify which blocks could limit performance and fix those issues early. By the end of the project, the system model usually represents the expected ASIC performance quite closely.

"Constant communication with the customer is critical. When issues arise, including the need to make trade-offs in specifications, we inform the customer and explain why. We run simulations, calculations, and modeling and work together to find the right path. Ultimately, this is about science, physics, mathematics, and simulation, not opinions," Fulmyk says.

Although StarIC has an established customer base and has built a reputation in North America, it is less well known in Europe. The goal is now to establish a foothold in Europe as well, especially in automotive, sensing, and medical markets, all of which can benefit from StarIC's experience and IP.

To accelerate market entry in Europe, StarIC teamed with consulting firm k-d-m (www.kdmsemiconsulting.com), which advises StarIC across Europe on market development, product marketing, and identifying potential customers.

StarIC has also recently appointed Redtree Solutions as its sales representative in Europe. "Through the collaboration with Redtree Solutions, StarIC will expand its offering of analog and mixed-signal IP in the European market, accelerate growth, and strengthen its position in Europe," says Imran Ahmed, CEO of StarIC. In return, Redtree can complement its ASIC, foundry, and services ecosystem with StarIC's IP and ASIC capabilities, according to Jean Marie Houillon, VP Marketing & Alliances at Redtree: "With StarIC's support, we can help our customers solve their complex mixed-signal design challenges on their chips and optimize their electronic systems." That includes IP functions and complete ASIC designs in high-speed data communication, audio, MEMS sensor interfaces, power management, PLLs, ultra-low power, and high-speed DACs and ADCs.

Fulmyk sees silicon photonics and the corresponding interfaces for chiplet markets as interesting growth areas and can already point to several design wins with leading companies in the silicon photonics space.