Electronic design automation

"ECAD" redirects here. For the Brazilian organization, see ECAD (Brazil). For other uses, see ECAD (disambiguation).

"Electronic design" redirects here. For the magazine, see Electronic Design (magazine).

Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD),^[1] is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools work together in a design flow that chip designers use to design and analyze entire semiconductor chips. Since a modern semiconductor chip can have billions of components, EDA tools are essential for their design; this article in particular describes EDA specifically with respect to integrated circuits (ICs).