Key Benefits

  • Jumpstart designs to improve engineering productivity
  • Fully explore design parameters for optimal performance with accelerated simulation runtimes
  • Validate performance against standards-specific signals

Optional features can be added to Cadence® AWR Design Environment® platform, including AWR® Microwave Office® circuit design software, AWR Visual System Simulator™ (VSS) communication and radar system design software, and AWR AXIEM® 3D planar electromagnetic (EM) analysis and AWR Analyst™ 3D finite element method (FEM) EM analysis simulators, to enhance engineering productivity, improve product performance, and speed time to market. From accelerating the initial RF design effort with leading network synthesis tools to significantly reducing simulation and optimization runtimes with parallel and distributed computing, these options ensure you and your organization get the most out of your software design flow investment and engineering resources.

Features

  • Synthesis wizards
  • Distributed/remote computing
  • Communications standards and radar libraries
  • Advanced RF circuit simulation and design technologies

Synthesis Wizards

 

Network synthesis is a key component of the synthesis wizards (SWS) module for synthesizing matching-circuit topologies. It helps amplifier, antenna, and front-end system designers save time developing impedance matching for optimal performance. The network synthesis wizard works by automatically creating optimized two-port impedance-matching networks. The user specifies the maximum number of sections and types of components to search—the evolutionary algorithm then finds the best circuit topologies and optimizes component parameter values. The network synthesis tool supports networks synthesized with components from the AWR Microwave Office vendor library and foundry-authorized process design kits (PDKs).

 

 

The Cadence AWR iFilter™ integrated filter synthesis wizard runs seamlessly within the AWR Design Environment platform. It enables filter designers to accelerate design starts with powerful synthesis of lumped- and distributed-filter types and supports the export of the resulting circuit topologies directly into AWR Microwave Office software for further refinement, optimization, EM verification, and physical design. The Cadence AWR iMatch™ impedance-matching wizard uses the iFilter™ wizard interface and can run as a standalone option or as an integrated feature with the iFilter option.

Distributed/Remote Computing

AWR software supports distributed and remote simulation. The ability to distribute circuit and EM simulations across multiple processors on a single computer or across external remote compute farms can dramatically reduce the overall simulation time for resource-intensive problems. Leveraging parallel computing enables design teams to verify the performance of large-scale systems (chip, package, and board assemblies) and to fully explore design options through optimization routines that may require hundreds if not thousands of iterations. Remote computing allows users to run an AWR AXIEM® analysis or AWR Analyst™ software simulation on a local computer and simulate the structure on a different computer. By setting up dedicated, remote computers for resource intensive simulations, designers can use local computers to continue working on other design tasks or perform smaller simulation problems.

Communications Standards and Radar Libraries

 

The 5G modulation waveforms library, inclusive of coding/modulation libraries and testbenches, works seamlessly with AWR VSS software to accelerate the development of 5G communications systems and related hardware. The library provides access to 5G candidate signals implemented as parameterized blocks with source subcircuits that have adjustable parameters such as carrier frequency, subcarrier spacing, number of subcarriers, filtering, and subcarrier mapping.

The radar, testbench, and phased array library module provides radar signal generation, radar-specific target and propagation modeling, and radar signal-processing capabilities. The library is tailored to give easy access to all the needed capabilities for simulations such as RF interference, antenna arrays, and multipath channels. The types of radars supported span military, medical, weather, automotive, and more.

The phased array generator wizard enables designers to rapidly configure a physical antenna array, assign antenna radiation patterns derived from AWR AXIEM analysis or AWR Analyst for the individual antenna elements, and model mutual coupling and edge/corner behavior. The wizard also allows designers to specify link and feed performance, incorporate gain tapering to reduce antenna side lobes, and investigate the impact of element failures on the overall array performance. It provides real-time visualization of far-field radiation patterns from all these user-specified parameters and then automatically generates either a system or circuit-based network in AWR Microwave Office software for further development and EM/circuit analysis of the complete array.

Advanced RF Circuit Simulation and Design Technologies

Several option configurations extend the capabilities of AWR Microwave Office software, supporting additional circuit analyses that includes time-domain and circuit-envelope simulation with the Cadence AWR APLAC® harmonic balance (HB) simulator, native and third-party nonlinear stability analysis, and Cadence Spectre® netlist and interface support.