Who is the best RFIC simlator?

[omara007]

ELDO RF is not bad at all ..

 

[Duncan_Widman]

I've seen a couple of comments that Microwave Office is very user friendly but 'has basic limitations' - I wonder what people are referring to when they say that? Can anyone name any specific issues? My feeling is that this is what ADS sales people tell their customers, to keep them from trying out MWO.

I work for AWR now, but before I joined I was a MMIC designer. I started out using Libra 3.5 (netlist based), but switched to MWO around the time ADS 1.0 came out. Over the years I (and my co-workers) produced many designs using MWO, from modeling the devices, to the circuit design and layout, to full reticle mask layout. We would also use IE3D or Sonnet along side the built in EMSight, but we never ran into any 'basic limitations' in MWO.

And for RFIC design - we have a new product, Analog Office, which has some powerful features for RFIC design. Anyone interested can check out our web site: http://www.mwoffice.com

 

[BigBoss]

Hehehhheee....

If you use ADS to simulate for instance a IQ modulator, you're in really a deep-shit.

In my opinion, for small applications up to 20-50 transistors, ADS is very good but not in transient simulations. To simulate a circuit that is very hard to simulate in HB domain, somebody has different opinion.

They say APLAC is very powerfull in simulating of hardly nonlinear semiconductor devices not ADS... It's interesting too..

And also they have another opinion about EldoRF in HB simulations.

I didn't check personally but these guys are very experienced in this area for many years.

For transient simulations SpectreRF has still great advantage than others.

In fact, to choose a simulator depends always on the circuit behaviour.

Perhaps, to have all is best.... :wink:

 

[RC13]

@DS is supposed the best from RF to Microwave circuit,
spectreRF can only do RFIC at RF range, not more than 10G,
the rest are just advantage at low cost, but no accurate,
these is based on simulation and measurement for RF/Microwave production chip experience, but @DS is too much expensive, but maybe is worth, we try many other simulator, but a lot of funny problem,

*the more expensive the simulator, the better it is.

 

[T Zul]

Synopsys I think.

But for the layout Synthesis Virtuoso XL is one of the best. (75% of the market)

Also, you can find that almost all foundries support Cadence.


T Zul

 

[Puppet1]

you can just use both @ds and @pectreRF since they now have their powerful dynamic link.

can have the best of both worlds.

 

[drabos]

What about AnSoft Serenade?

 

[kolarbear]

I would choose the ADS first and SpectreRF second.

 

[sun2002]

I would choose the @DS first and SpectreRF second.

me too.

 

[drabos]

I think Spectre RF is just for RFIC, If you use discrete transistor or HEMT than you should use Agilent ADS or Microwave Office or Aplac. Am I right?
Or Spectre RF is good for discrete devices?

I would like to design a PA for 2.4 GHz and FR-4 , can I use Spectre Rf to design it?

 

[zmliu]

SpectreRF is best for RFIC, Ansoft and Agilent ADS are good at system simulation.

 

[itaifrenkel]

What about AnSoft Serenade?

(proper discloser: I work for Ansoft's rep in Israel)

ANSOFT has a new circuit solver called Nexxim, which can be integrated both into Cadence ADE or Ansoft Designer enviroment.

Ansoft claims it's Harmonic Balance solver is about 2 to 3 years ahead of the competition in terms of capacity/speed/convergence etc...


Itai

 

[shahid Shafique]

Help regarding ADS

CAn any one help me in getting ADS software and how to develop my skills in it.
Regards
shahid

 

[al303576RELOADED]

is a verry dificult question but ..... i tink @DS is better in electromagnetic simulation AWR is more beatteful , but in my opinio @AD is more easy and friendly AWR is for me more complex..

 

[icwave]

I haven't used ADS, but after looking at the functionalities, seems better than SpectreRF. Without RFDE, it has limited usage, e.g. I don't think u can do impedance matching in SpectreRF

 

[icfarmer]

ADS is very powerful for Powr designing,such as HB simulation, but it is not good at layout,especially for complex layout.

 

[BigBoss]

New simulator of Cadence called as MMSIM+USR1( improved version of previous one ) is very powerful.In addition to, some convergence problems are disappeared..

I use it daily..

 

[ng wei]

Which rfic software can be downloaded for free?

 

[shawon59]

I think ADS is quite good. Although I have not used SpectreRF that much. So, I can't compare really.

 

[yaojianhai]

I haven't learn ADS ,but i thank ti very great!