Blaze DFM provides "electrical DFM" solutions that maximize parametric yield for sub-100 nm. The startup previously raised $8 million with series A funding, in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in the fall of 2004.

Blaze announced in late February its plans to merge with fellow DFM startup Aprio Technologies, which fell on hard times in 2005 and announced layoffs in December. Blaze claims that the combination of Aprio's lithography simulation and analysis engines, along with Blaze's electrical analysis and optimization technology, will provide the most comprehensive electrical DFM offering available.

Contributors to the new series B round of funding include El Dorado Ventures, Mobius Venture Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Blaze was founded in October 2004, and claims to have achieved first customer tapeout in December 2005. The company's official rollout was May 2006. According to Jacob Jacobsson, Blaze president and CEO, the company has booked "multiple millions of dollars" in customer orders from companies such as STMicroelectronics and Qualcomm.

In May 2006 Blaze rolled out Blaze MO, which improves leakage and timing by optimizing and annotating design data for the optical proximity correction (OPC) process. In December, Blaze introduced its Blaze IF synthesis tool, which inserts dummy fill patterns into a design layout to conform to chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) design rules.