EDA Suite Improves With Budget Analysis

Oct. 22, 2004

2 min read

Widely used for high-frequency electronic design automation (EDA), the Advanced Design System (ADS) 2004A suite of design and simulation software tools from Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA) has been upgraded with a new budget analysis capability. The new functionality allows operators to predict RF system performance by considering specification tradeoffs, such as impedance mismatch versus gain, earlier in the design cycle. In the past, such design budgeting was usually performed with spreadsheets, and not integrated within the EDA tools.

According to Joe Civello, Product Marketing Manager for Agilent's EEsof EDA Div., "Integrating RF budget analysis into our Advanced Design System gives RF system designers an accurate, efficient way to analyze parts of the system and use the results in the overall system design. The integration eliminates the tedium of entering data and maintaining spreadsheets when calculating and analyzing RF budgets." The ADS software suite is a complete set of front-to-back simulation and layout tools and instrument links for RF and microwave IC design in a single, integrated design flow. Budget analysis measurements include signal, noise and system-chain, nonlinear measurements such as third-order intercept point. Complex systems such as automatic gain control (AGC) loops also can be analyzed using budget analysis. The results of the selected measurements can be displayed in plots and tables or exported as an ASCII text file for use with external spreadsheet software.

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About the Author

Jack Browne

Technical Contributor

Jack Browne, Technical Contributor, has worked in technical publishing for over 30 years. He managed the content and production of three technical journals while at the American Institute of Physics, including Medical Physics and the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology. He has been a Publisher and Editor for Penton Media, started the firm’s Wireless Symposium & Exhibition trade show in 1993, and currently serves as Technical Contributor for that company's Microwaves & RF magazine. Browne, who holds a BS in Mathematics from City College of New York and BA degrees in English and Philosophy from Fordham University, is a member of the IEEE.