Cadence to acquire AWR from National Instruments to accelerate system innovation for 5G RF communications

Cadence Design Systems, and National Instruments Corporation have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Cadence expects to acquire AWR Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Instruments (NI). AWR is an industry leader in high-frequency RF EDA software technology and will bring a highly talented RF team to Cadence. Concurrently, Cadence and NI also entered into a strategic alliance agreement to expand their relationship to enhance electronic system innovation with a focus on communications.

AWR software is used by microwave and RF engineers to design wireless products for complex, high-frequency RF applications. The technology helps customers accelerate the design and product development cycle of systems used in communications, aerospace and defence, semiconductor, computer, and consumer electronics, by helping reduce the time it takes to go from concept to manufacturing.

“Companies designing communication and radar chips, modules and systems face increasing time-to-market pressure in high-growth 5G/wireless applications. Creating differentiated products while reducing cycle time requires a seamless design, simulation and analysis environment,” said Dr. Anirudh Devgan, president of Cadence. “The addition of AWR’s talent and technologies will enable us to provide more integrated and optimized RF design solutions, thereby further accelerating system innovation as we execute our Intelligent System Design strategy.”

Designers are challenged with the traditional RF/microwave design flow, which consists of processes that are error-prone, resulting in a loss of productivity and capability. Customers can benefit from a seamless integration connecting the AWR® Design Environment with the Cadence® Allegro® PCB Designer and the industry-leading Virtuoso® and Spectre® platforms for RF integrated circuit (IC) design excellence. Electromagnetic and thermal analysis is often difficult and tedious for a designer to setup and use. To address this, the integration also includes Cadence system analysis tools such as the Clarity™ 3D Solver, Celsius™ Thermal Solver and Sigrity™ PowerSI® technologies.

“RF/microwave/mmWave applications need best-in-class solutions to achieve first-pass success with optimal design performance,” said Joseph E. Pekarek, general manager of AWR. “By joining forces with Cadence, our goal is to be able to leverage the strength and heritage of the Virtuoso and Allegro platforms along with the AWR Design Environment platform to deliver complete solutions for complex ICs, packages and boards.”

The flows resulting from the integration of AWR technology with Cadence computation software are expected to be tightly connected with the NI LabVIEW and PXI modular instrumentation systems and semiconductor data platform as part of a new strategic alliance. For more information on the Cadence and NI strategic alliance, please visit ni.com/nati/news.

Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Cadence will pay approximately $160 million in cash at closing and expects approximately 110 AWR employees to join Cadence. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.