Anchor Semiconductor closed a $7.2 million second funding round led by H&Q Asia Pacific, EE Times reported on October 3, 2006. The Sunnyvale, California, startup said it would invest the proceeds in research and development, applications engineering, sales, and marketing. The announcement is historical: it does not establish whether Anchor or its NanoScope products remain available today.
Who funded Anchor Semiconductor, and what was the money for?
H&Q Asia Pacific led the $7.2 million round, which Anchor described as its second. After the investment, the company had received $10.8 million in venture funding in total, according to EE Times’ October 3, 2006 report.
Anchor president Chenmin Hu said the proceeds would support four areas:
- Research and development
- Applications engineering
- Sales
- Marketing
Hu said Anchor expected to turn a profit that year. He also said the company sought funding to build its DFM technology business while competing with companies that had larger marketing budgets. That was an expectation and explanation reported in 2006, not confirmation of the company’s later financial results.
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What did Anchor Semiconductor make?
Founded in 2001, Anchor focused on design for manufacturability (DFM)—techniques and tools intended to help chip designs translate into manufacturable silicon. The EE Times report placed its work particularly in lithography and patterning, steps involved in transferring a circuit layout into physical chip patterns.
Anchor’s NanoScope products addressed DFM on both the manufacturing and design sides. Eric Lin, the company’s director of field operations, described the approach as “pattern-centric” and said it controlled layout-to-silicon pattern transfer. The report also said Anchor was working with partners on solutions for 65- and 45-nanometer technology nodes; executives did not disclose details of those collaborations.
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Which customers and qualifications did Anchor report?
Hu said Anchor had more than 10 customers across integrated device manufacturers, foundries, design companies, and equipment vendors. He named United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), Dongbu Electronics Co. Ltd., Silterra Malaysia Sdn Bhd, and Xilinx. Hu also said some customers had purchased more than $1 million in Anchor tools. These are company figures reported by EE Times in 2006, not independently audited or current customer metrics.
The report said Anchor was among a handful of companies that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) announced as qualified for its DFM Unified Format in May 2006. That qualification is a historical report, not evidence of present-day product support or qualification.
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Who were Anchor’s competitors in 2006?
EE Times described Brion Technologies as a competitor and, citing Lin, identified vendors and products across manufacturing-side and design-side DFM. These names reflect the competitive landscape reported at the time, not a current market comparison.
| Area | Companies and products named in the 2006 report |
|---|---|
| Manufacturing-side | Mentor Graphics Calibre OPCverify; Synopsys SiVL |
| Design-side | Mentor Graphics Calibre LFD; Synopsys PrimeYield; Clear Shape Technologies Inshape |
| Both design and manufacturing | Aprio Technologies was described as marketing tools for both |
The report did not provide comparable performance benchmarks or pricing, so it does not support ranking these tools or assessing their relative value.
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- Integrated Antenna: Features PCB trace antenna built directly on-board for immediate testing and development without requiring external antenna components
What is known about Anchor Semiconductor today?
The 2006 report documents a funding round, products, customers, and company expectations at that time. It does not establish Anchor Semiconductor’s present corporate status, whether NanoScope is still available, or what became of the stated profitability expectation and partner work. Those questions cannot be answered from the contemporaneous announcement alone.
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