PAE contours in Cadence spectre

Hi, I know that we have an option to plot both output Power and PAE contours in ADE and then we can find trade-off between output Power and PAE. Can we also do that using cadence spectre?

There is one more post related to the same.
https://www.edaboard.com/showthread.php?358266-How-to-draw-PAE-contours

But it provided the answer vaguly. Because as I have seen, there are many options in Harmonic balance analysis "direct plot" but I don't see anything to plot PAE contours. However, there is one option called "Power Added Eff." but it doesn't plot PAE contours. Thanks

circuitking said:

I know that we have an option to plot
both output Power and PAE contours in ADE
and then we can find trade-off between output Power and PAE.
Can we also do that using cadence spectre?

Click to expand...

Surely understand general note in https://www.edaboard.com/showthread.php?384620#35

- Don't mix up Simulation with Post Processing.
They are completely different phase.

Contour plots are ability of postprocessing not simulator.
This is true for ADSsim on ADS or Goldengate Simulator on ADS.
So it is very easy as far as you can understand Spectre, ViVA, OCEAN, Skill and PSF data structure very correctly.

circuitking said:

Because as I have seen,
there are many options in Harmonic balance analysis "direct plot"
but I don't see anything to plot PAE contours.

Click to expand...

- Don't mix up Simulation with Post Processing.
They are completely different phase.

circuitking said:

However, there is one option called "Power Added Eff." but it doesn't plot PAE contours.

Click to expand...

Simply you can not understand contour plots at all.

You have to do load-pull or source-pull simulation.

And don't rely on Direct Plot of Cadence ADE, since they are not reliable and often wrong.
Rather build your own script by using primitive skill functions.


The followings are general notes for you.

- Always describe correct tool's name and vendor's name which you use as tool or simulator.
- Describe in detail and correctly with using correct terminologies.
- Warnigns are different from Errors.
- ADS is not name of simulator.
- There is no tool which name is Cadence.
- Don't use Direct Plot of Cadence ADE blindly without knowing definition.
- Don't mix up Simulation with Post Processing. They are completely different phase.
- MATLAB are different from Simulink.

pancho_hideboo said:

Surely understand general note in https://www.edaboard.com/showthread.php?384620#35

- Don't mix up Simulation with Post Processing.
They are completely different phase.

Click to expand...

Now I understand what exactly you mean by post processing. Sometimes, it seems to me that the way you design circuits is totally different from the way I do.


I found the answer to my question here
https://community.cadence.com/cadence_technology_forums/f/rf-design/36218/pae-contour

circuitking said:

Sometimes, it seems to me that the way you design circuits is totally different from the way I do.

Click to expand...

Do you design ?
Isn't it EDA Tool Play ?

pancho_hideboo said:

Do you design ?
Isn't it EDA Tool Play ?

Click to expand...

I am a student, want to be a circuit designer.

You can use Harmonic Tuner ( or something like that ) to obtain PAE curves in Cadence ADE Spectre.
I did it long time ago but it ought to have Magnitude and Phase fields to be filled.You may define 2 variables for those fields such as mag_var and phase_var then you sweep those variables in according to Smith Chart limits then you can check PAE. Cadence Spectre has also an utility for that but I have never used it.
Don't forget to place Current Probes at Input and Output Ports and obviously Voltage Supply source.
You know the definition of PAE, so calculate and plot the curves by using Cadence ADE Calculator.