2025 Outlook Anna Fontanelli MZ Technologies

Anna Fontanelli, CEO of MZ Technologies, is a silicon executive with more than 35 years of expertise in managing complex R&D organizations/programs to give birth to innovative EDA technologies. Strong communication skills and proven ability to lead distributed, cross functional teams in international environments. Wide experience in managing multi-million dollars technology partnerships with customers, suppliers, and the EU, including gathering requirements, reviewing specifications, coordinating development efforts, across multiple countries. Anna Fontanelli is the author of several papers (15 including a Best Paper Award) and 2 patents.

What was the most exciting high point of 2024 for your company?

Without doubt, the high point of the year is that we passed a major start-up milestone and acquired our first revenue-generating customer.  I can’t tell you who, for competitive reasons, but it is a very well-known global technology leader

What was the biggest challenge your company faced in 2024?

Responding to the challenges posed by the complexity of chiplet-package co-design.  It’s like every intellectual challenge: It seems the more you learn, the less you know.  Overcoming some of the thermal and mechanical stress aspects of chiplet/package co-design, for instance can prove quite daunting.

How is your company’s work addressing this biggest challenge?

We recently introduced GenioEvo^TM.  GenioEvo is the first integrated chiplet/package EDA tool to address, in the pre-layout stage the two major issues of 3D-IC design that I talked about earlier: thermal and mechanical stress.  It’s the second generation of GENIO^™, which was the EDA’s first successful integrated chiplet/package co-design tool.

GenioEvo is a cross-fabric platform for system design providing chiplet/die, silicon interposer, package, and surrounding PCB co-design features that achieve area, power, and performance targets. The tool is technology agnostic and seamlessly integrates through standard formats with all the existing commercial implementation platforms or to custom EDA flows through dedicated plug-ins.  It fits into any existing design flow and operates at the architecture level, pathfinding the optimal system choices to implement a 2.5D or 3D multi-die design.

What do you think the biggest growth area for 2025 will be, and why?

I think this is the year that chip stacking and 3D-IC will be taking off.  We recently attended a couple of technical and industry events and the interest in 3D-IC enabling technology was more robust and noisier than at any time in the past.

How is your company’s work addressing this growth?

GenioEvo is just the first in a line of innovations that we’ll be rolling out this year.  By the end of the year, we will have introduced additional thermal and interconnect features.

What conferences did you attend in 2024 and how was the traffic?

We attended both Chiplet Summit, DAC, and DATE.  Chiplet Summit is definitely a growing show, given the status of advanced technology.

Will you attend conferences in 2025? Same or more?

We’ll be exhibiting at both Chiplet Summit and DAC this year.

Additional questions or final comments? 

Without a doubt, AI will continue to drive advanced technology innovation.  Heterogeneous IC systems are the future.  Cost/effective designing and manufacturing these new systems; well, that’s the big challenge.

Also Read:

MZ Technologies is Breaking Down 3D-IC Design Barriers with GENIO

MZ Technologies Enables Multi-Die Design with GENIO

How MZ Technologies is Making Multi-Die Design a Reality