With simulation and software design tools playing a key role in driving RF and microwave circuit design to the next level of integration and performance, it was not surprising to see major electronic design automation (EDA) vendors and software providers unveiling new developments on this front at this week’s IEEE International Microwave Symposium in Long Beach, Calif. Toward that goal, Computer Simulation Technology (CST) unveiled advances in the integration of its MICROWAVE STUDIO simulation tool with Agilent Technologies’ Advanced Design System (ADS) EDA software. This automated co-simulation advances workflow integration for the RF and microwave design engineer who is trying to improve passive circuit performance.

Concurrently, Agilent’s EEsof EDA division disclosed the tight integration of its RFDE and Momentum simulation software into Cadence Virtuoso analog and mixed-signal design flow.

Likewise, RFIC simulation tools provider Xpedion announced the availability of the latest version of its GoldenGate simulator, version 3.5. This release of Xpedion's flagship product delivers another major advancement in convergence and speed for RFIC designers, said the developer. GoldenGate 3.5 uses 50% less memory while doubling the speed over the previous version. These improvements allow design teams to tackle unprecedented amounts of characterization prior to tape-out, reducing design spins. Furthermore, design for yield analysis, such as Monte Carlo and sweeping process corners, become feasible for full transceiver radios. These capabilities enable designers to optimize their designs for high yield production.

Applied Wave Research (AWR) disclosed its CDMA2000 test bench for the company’s Visual System Simulator (VSS) design suite. The new test bench is designed for RF system engineers who need to evaluate the impact of RF link impairments on frame error rate (FER), bit-error rate (BER), symbol error rate (SER) and other metrics.

Ansoft Corp. released a new library for TDK's capacitor, inductor, common mode filter, and ferrite bead components for use in Nexxim and Ansoft Designer. The component library, free to Ansoft customers, is aimed at helping engineers design electronic equipment, such as wireless LAN, car navigation systems, base stations and cellular handsets. The integration of Nexxim and Ansoft Designer combines high-frequency circuit, system and 3D planar electromagnetic simulation to take full advantage of the accuracy offered by the TDK library.

Among others, Finland’s APLAC Solutions Corp. unwrapped a new version of its RF design tool, the version 8.10, providing a single integrated environment for RFIC, RFBoard and system-level analysis.

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