Solido Design Automation

About Solido Design Automation

Solido Design Automation, now part of Siemens EDA, operates in the electronic design automation (EDA) software market, providing machine learning-based tools for variation-aware design and characterization of semiconductor chips. The company was established in 2005 in Saskatoon, Canada, by Amit Gupta and Trent McConaghy. Gupta, a serial entrepreneur with a background in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Saskatchewan, had previously founded and sold another EDA company, Analog Design Automation, to Synopsys in 2004. This prior experience in circuit design automation directly informed Solido's mission. The founders started the company to address the growing challenge of variability in semiconductor manufacturing as transistors became smaller and more complex.

Solido's business model centers on licensing its specialized software to semiconductor companies. Its client base includes most of the world's top semiconductor firms, which use the software to design chips for a vast array of electronics, including smartphones, cars, and data centers. The company's software addresses the critical need to manage manufacturing process variations, ensuring that chips function correctly, meet performance and power targets, and achieve higher yields. The firm's key products include the Solido Design Environment, Solido Variation Designer, and the Solido Characterization Suite. These tools employ proprietary machine learning algorithms to perform SPICE-level design and verification much faster than traditional brute-force simulation methods. This allows designers to analyze the effects of process, voltage, and temperature variations, ultimately creating more competitive and reliable integrated circuits (ICs).

The company demonstrated significant growth, with revenue increases of 50 to 70 percent annually between 2009 and 2017, leading to its recognition by Deloitte as one of North America's fastest-growing technology companies. This success culminated in its acquisition by Mentor, a Siemens Business, on December 1, 2017, in what was described as Saskatchewan's largest-ever technology acquisition. Post-acquisition, the Solido team and its Saskatoon operations were integrated into Mentor's IC Verification Solutions division, with the goal of expanding the reach of Solido's technology to a broader customer base and establishing Saskatoon as a key R&D center for Siemens.