CEO Interview: Barry Paterson of Agile Analog

Agile Analog is transforming the world of analog IP with Composa™, its innovative, highly configurable, multi-process analog IP technology.  Agile Analog has developed a unique way to automatically generate analog IP that meet the customer’s exact specifications, for any foundry and on any process, from legacy nodes right up to the leading edge. The company provides a wide-range of novel analog IP and subsystems for data conversion, power management, IC monitoring, security and always-on IP, with applications including; data centers/HPC, IoT, AI, quantum computing, automotive and aerospace. The digitally wrapped and verified solutions can be seamlessly integrated into any SoC, significantly reducing complexity, time and costs, helping to accelerate innovation in semiconductor design.

Tell us a bit about your background. Why did you decide to become the CEO at Agile Analog in May 2022?
During my 30 years of working in the semiconductor industry, I have held senior leadership, engineering and product management roles at Dialog Semiconductor, Wolfson Microelectronics and Intel. My experience includes the development of custom, mixed-signal silicon solutions for many of the leading consumer electronics companies across the world.

When I was asked to become CEO at Agile Analog I was truly excited by the prospect of helping to drive forward a start-up company with such ground-breaking technology and great potential to change how analog design is performed. Throughout my career I have observed analog design engineers solving complex engineering challenges on a specific process node and then having to start over again when the foundry or process node changes. Traditional analog design can be incredibly difficult and frustrating, so the chance to automate part of the design process to help make chip design less complex, time-consuming and costly is a game-changer for the industry.

How have Agile Analog’s technology and products developed during the last 2 years?
Over the last two years, we have been making significant progress with our internal EDA technology Composa and our product portfolio. The development of analog design automation is complex and we have had many challenges. I am really impressed by the innovative work of our technical team at Agile Analog and I believe we now have a level of design automation (schematic generation, verification and customization) that is unprecedented. I am also really pleased that our range of highly configurable, multi-node analog IP is continuously growing and we have delivered multiple IP products to customers around the globe that are now in silicon. Our products include data conversion, power management, security, IC monitoring, always-on and subsystems IP. Every quarter we are extending this portfolio and every product is process agnostic.

Apart from technology and product developments, what have been the key milestones for the company over the last 2 years?
I would say that there are two company milestones that really stand out. I am very proud that last year we were accepted into the TSMC Open Innovation Platform (OIP) IP Alliance Program and we joined the Intel Foundry IP Alliance Program. These are important achievements that are testament to the high-quality and high-performance of our unique analog IP products. As a result, we are now able to participate in foundry events, such as the TSMC Technology Symposium events and Intel Foundry Direct Connect. It’s an honor to be part of these industry-leading ecosystems. And by collaborating closely with the major foundries, we can help more customers to simplify and speed up their analog IP integration.

How has the company dealt with industry and global challenges during this time?
2023 was a challenging time for the whole of the semiconductor industry due to the impact of global economic uncertainty and geopolitical unrest. Despite this, we took the opportunity to increase focus on developing our Composa technology and we built out our underlying library of sub-blocks required for IP product development. We were very fortunate to have great support from our investors that enabled us to continue driving forward in an extremely difficult period for the industry and the economy in general. The good news is that since the end of 2023 we have seen some positive change across the major semiconductor market segments. And for us, in the analog IP market, there has been a surge in interest, especially for our data conversion and power management IP solutions that are critical for the demanding digital applications of today. There are still some ongoing challenges in the industry, including a shortage of analog engineers, but we are determined to accelerate the development and adoption of our novel analog IP products.

What does the competitive landscape look like and how does your company differentiate?
Looking at the competitive landscape there are certain competitors that excel in specific segments such as clocking, SerDes and standards-based IP. In these areas our competition has clear leadership, so it would be ambitious to try and compete head-on. Many of our competitors are well-established, with excellent IP portfolios. This has been achieved through many years of hard work and successful customer engagements, so they are great role models for us. At Agile Analog, we are differentiating ourselves by offering customization, high-quality, speed of delivery, with the ability to provide our IP products on any process node for any foundry. Currently, we are not focused on standards-based IP that is locked to a specific node. Our focus is on general analog IP that needs to be optimized for each customer. This means that our customers have flexibility to obtain the optimal IP for their specific product. Our main product areas of data conversion, power management and enabling IP are resonating with customers who either have no analog design capability or very limited analog design resource that they need to focus on developing distinct analog functions in their product. In order to be successful within this segment a high level of design automation capability is needed, which we have through our internal Composa technology. Having analog design automation allows us to customize our products and deliver them on any foundry and process – this is what really differentiates us in the market.

What are the company’s main areas of focus for the rest of 2024?
The next 6 months are going to be full-on! We will be continuing to focus on the development of our Composa tool and our IP product roadmap, especially our data conversion, security and power management solutions. To accelerate the growth of Agile Analog we are recruiting new analog engineers, scaling up our customer support team and expanding our sales representation in the USA and APAC. We have some interesting new customer projects underway, with more in the pipeline. And of course, our sales team are out on the road, attending many of the major foundry events, talking with customers and partners about our unique analog IP technology. It’s such an exciting time!

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