IC Mask Design News
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29 January 2008
IC Mask Design - 2007 Year In Review
Following rapid growth in revenue, continued expansion of its engineering team and having won many new customers in new geographies, 2007 was – without doubt – another extremely successful year for IC Mask Design.
IC Mask Design has quickly developed a reputation as the largest and most successful Analog/RF Layout Design Services firm in Europe. One of the keys to the company’s success over the last 12 months has proven to be its repeat customer base, as return customers generated 60% of revenue in 2007.
Key achievements for IC Mask Design in 2007 included:
- 30% growth of its engineering team
- 62% growth in revenue from 2006
- 21 new clients expanding the company’s global customer base into new geographies
- Increased market share in key geographies ( Ireland, UK, Germany and Austria)
- Services delivered in a number of new regions including Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Malaysia
- Particularly strong growth in the UK market, more specifically the Cambridge region
- IC Mask Design taped out its first design in 45nm. 80% of the company’s design service projects were on 90nm technologies or below.
- Training division, Master-IC™, launched in the USA
- Over 100 engineers attended IC Mask Design’s training courses across 20 companies, bringing the total number to 400 since founding Master-IC™ in 2004
Since its inception in 2002, IC Mask Design’s worldwide customer base has grown to over 75 leading organisations, and its engineers have completed over 120 full chip tapeouts.
Reflecting on the company’s achievements in 2007, CEO Fergal Brosnan commented: “IC Mask Design has broken the mould in the industry where in the past design engineers have controlled the layout task. Customers now look to us to drive the layout task, and feed better design practices to their design teams.
"The responsibility of layout now rests with us, not our customers. This is particularly true for VDSM technologies where the layout of the chip is becoming increasingly important in ensuring correct functionality of the design, leading to maximum utilisation of expensive mask sets and, ultimately, faster time to market.”
Design Centre a Key Development
Since 2002, IC Mask Design has steadily developed its fully functional design centre in Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. In 2007, the company completed 95% of its design services activity from its Maynooth facility, working remotely from the customers’ design teams. Its customers are more than happy to adopt this model, as they are confident in IC Mask Design’s ability and quality of work. The company has put a lot of effort into seamlessly interfacing with its customers whilst working remotely from their core design teams.
IC Mask Design’s Training division, Master-IC™, focused on IC layout training, is quickly gaining a reputation as a leading provider of innovative training courses. Many organisations are adopting IC Mask Design’s courses as standards to be completed by their internal design teams. Engineers have travelled from as far away as Asia to attend the company’s training courses in Ireland.
Commenting on the company’s plans for its successful Design Services and Training Division’s, Ciaran Whyte, CTO of IC Mask Design, said: “We have very ambitious but realistic plans in 2008 to continue to grow our engineering team with world class engineers, and are planning to develop additional design centres outside of our existing centre in Maynooth. The current focus is the expansion of our Limerick office and the development and growth of an Analog/RF focused physical design team to work on leading edge designs with our key global customers.”
Over the next 12 months, IC Mask Design plans to grow its engineering team by 40% to meet ever-increasing demand for its high quality services. Its new engineers will gain invaluable exposure to the company’s range of IC Layout Training courses, which can significantly accelerate their career paths. In addition, they will enjoy working on leading edge technologies and designs for market leading organisations. IC Mask Design’s customer base currently consists of large OEM Manufacturers and leading VC-backed fabless companies, particularly in the Radio Frequency space.
IC Mask Design’s CEO, Fergal Brosnan, summarised the company’s plans for 2008 by saying, “As well as adding to our engineering team throughout the year, we will be expanding our Training division, Master-IC™, with the launch of a number of new courses and one-day seminars in 2008. We will also be adding to our technical delivery team and associated roles to achieve our ambitious targets. It’s going to be an exciting year!”
About IC Mask Design
IC Mask Design is an industry leader in the provision of Physical Design Services and Software Solutions to the semiconductor industry. The company’s services encompass IC Layout and Training Programs, delivering expertise in Analog, RF, mixed-signal and digital design using the latest tools from leading EDA vendors. IC Mask Design also provides training courses covering the complete spectrum of physical design. Its Analog Layout Acceleration Platform aims to dramatically reduce analog layout design cycle time whilst producing optimal quality layout structures which incorporate circuit functionality requirements and process artefacts.
Further information is available from IC Mask Design's web site.
For more details, please contact:
Fergal BrosnanTel: +353 (0)61 448 530
Email: