What Are Rapid Adoption Kits, And Why Are They Great for Academia?

Academic research often requires the learning of new concepts and techniques in a short amount of time, and the tools that you are using shouldn't be an obstacle in themselves. Rapid Adoption Kits (RAKs) are highly recommended for a quick ramp-up in the methodology of a particular Cadence tool. They provide a self-packaged test case covering techniques that can improve productivity and maximize the benefits of the tool you are using. Professors and students alike can benefit massively by becoming confident in the design flow faster, allowing more time for the research and design they wish to achieve. Some RAKs describe resolutions to a particular design issue, whilst others describe the complete design flow from schematic to final checks.

The RAKs can contain:

• Workshop Databases, including demo designs, which help demonstrate the applications with instructions to test drive.
• Instructional Documents, which provide step-by-step instructions to run the database.
• Videos, which interactively assist self-learning.

RAKs are kept up-to-date with the current release of the software and based on customer feedback. With over 200 RAKs currently available and more in production with new tools and releases, it is well worth looking for a kit to improve your design flow. It is possible to adapt RAKs for your own needs and to use them for student labs. RAKs are based on generic PDKs, so no extra NDA with foundries have to be signed. Still, since generic PDKs are close to the real PDKs, technology effects such as short channel effects are correctly modelled and must be taken into account.

Log in to your Cadence Online Support account then access support.cadence.com/raks for the full list of available RAKs to download; RAKs are grouped by technology category and have a short blurb for easy navigation. For more information, please contact academicnetwork@cadence.com.