Agilent Helps STMicro to Develop ESD

Agilent Technologies’s(A - Analyst Report) Electromagnetic Professional (EMPro) software was selected by STMicroelectronics (STM - Snapshot Report), a leading global semiconductor manufacturer, for the development of electrostatic discharge (ESD) structures for chip manufacturing using the CMOS process.

The chip manufacturing process involves a number of steps and because of the reducing geometries, incorporation of ESD protection structures (for heat dissipation during the manufacturing process) is becoming increasingly difficult to incorporate. This is therefore slowing down the design process and affecting the time-to-market of the devices.

Further, the complexity of chip designing has increased considerably over time, due to the demand for increased functionality, smaller device sizes and lower power consumption. Therefore, chip designers have been using software tools for automating their designing and analysis right from the modeling stage to the final system verification stage.

Agilent’s EM Pro software has the required capabilities to speed up the electrical performance of packages, connectors, antennas and other radio frequency (RF) and high-speed components and create various 3D models. The software can provide the requisite speed for design flow, which is critical for integrated circuit (IC) development.

STMicroelectronics is a leading manufacturer and supplier of semiconductors for various microelectronic applications, including automotive products, computer peripherals, telecommunications systems, consumer products, industrial automation and control systems. Therefore, this is a big win for Agilent.

Agilent is constantly making an effort to introduce new capabilities and innovations in its EMPro platform. Agilent’s testing systems have proved effective in the past, enabling it to build a strong position for itself. The electronic measurement segment has been improving over the last few quarters as Agilent has been launching new products.

Agilent’s revenue in the third quarter was flat sequentially and up 1.9% year over year, short of management’s expectations of a 2-3% sequential increase ($1.77 billion to $1.79 billion). The Electronic Measurement segment contributed 49.0% of revenue. The weakness was on the computing/semiconductor side of the business. The Life Sciences segment generated 23.0% of revenue, down 1.0% sequentially and up 2.1% from last year. The Chemical Analysis segment generated 22.0% of third quarter revenue, down 8.8% sequentially and 7.0% year over year. The sequential decline was largely because of weakness in food testing.

Currently, Agilent Technologies has a Zacks #4 Rank, implying a short-term ‘Hold’ rating.