ANSYS announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Helic, the industry-leading provider of electromagnetic crosstalk solutions for systems on chips (SoCs). By combining the Helix products with its own flagship electromagnetic and semiconductor solvers, ANSYS aims to provide a comprehensive solution for on-chip, 3D integrated circuit and chip-package-system electromagnetics and noise analysis. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019. Management will provide further details regarding the transaction and its impact on the 2019 financial outlook after the closing.
Helic's solutions help semiconductor companies debug and analyze electromagnetic crosstalk issues in their advanced SoC designs and reduce the risk of silicon failure. By combining Helic's products with ANSYS tools for electromagnetics and power-integrity noise analysis, ANSYS aims to enable engineers to deploy an electromagnetic-aware design methodology to design devices in all advanced nodes, optimize the die size, and capture electromagnetic and parasitic effects from direct current up to 110 GHz.
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Helic has more than 50 employees, including locations in Greece, Japan, and Ireland. Its product suite includes electromagnetic modeling and simulation for highly complex circuits for sub-10 nanometer technologies. Helic products have been successfully deployed by customers in applications ranging from radio-frequency wireless transceivers, graphics processing units, high-speed I/Os in multi-core processors, and image sensors and other internet of things connected devices.
"Electromagnetic noise is a key design challenge that is driving the need for extensive on-chip electromagnetic analysis," said John Lee, ANSYS vice president and general manager. "As the leader in multiphysics simulation, ANSYS already has the leading electromagnetic and semiconductor solutions on the market. This acquisition brings Helic's, industry leading on-chip electromagnetic solutions into the ANSYS family – complementing our leadership in power integrity noise analysis and helping our customers address the market needs driven by 5G, AI and cloud computing."
"Helic is thrilled to become part of the ANSYS family. This acquisition will bring significant benefits to both ANSYS and Helic customers," said Yorgos Koutsoyannopoulos, president and CEO of Helic. "ANSYS customers will gain easy access to on-chip electromagnetics solvers, integrated with the flagship ANSYS electronics and semiconductor tools. Helic customers will benefit from inclusion in the ANSYS platform for multi-physics and chip-package-system."