Microwave office®

For PcBs

Not so long ago state-of-the-art design was done on the chip, and RF/microwave

engineers designing printed circuit boards (PCBs) were an afterthought. Today

however it’s a far different story. PCB design has not has not only caught up with

cutting-edge IC design, but now faces some of the most difficult problems in the

industry. The complexity of modern wireless devices requires multiple layers on

PCBs, and the need to add additional layers in order to fit all the features makes it

that much more difficult to get the RF right. AWR understands your dilemna—we

are microwave engineers ourselves and we know the pressure you are under to

produce complex designs that meet demanding specs—and to do it in constantly

shrinking market windows.

THE AWR RF PCB DESIGN FLOW ADVANTAGE

Even more than most design flows, RF PCB demands a layout-driven

design methodology. Component placement combined with multiple route

types—digital control lines, DC bias, and RF signal path—challenge

designers to get the performance right....directly from the layout. AWR

Design Environment™ (AWRDE) provides the plug-and-play capability that

unifies a schematic-layout data representation with requisite simulation

capabilities and your favorite EM tools. AWR brings it all together in a flow

that lets you get there from the layout even when you need to work from

the schematic. The industry-leading and unique AWR environment with its

Unified Data Model (UDM™), ties all design, analysis, and verification views to a

concurrent layout and schematic with an open integration interface for easy access

to industry-standard component modelling.

AWR’s powerful suite of layout-driven schematic elements makes it easy to

adaptively model your RF signal path. First creating a schematic with your RF-

critical elements in a design-before-layout phase and then using the very same

schematic in a layout-driven mode, AWRDE can automatically resize junction

and discountinuity models as you tune, optimize, or re-route your design without

changing the schematic. This capability even extends to differential lines for QPSK

or SerDes applications. If your schematics are just components and wires, AWR’s

Intelligent Net™ (iNet) technology enables you to design a classical PCB schematic,

forestalling interconnect design and analysis until you get to the layout. iNets

provide the ability to have a wire on the schematic that is routable over many

layers, with an auto via insertion capability that knows how to terminate the route

on whatever pins to which it is connected. A built-in connectivity checker lets you

know about missed or unfinished routes.

Layout

CircuitDesign

SystemDesign

Simulation & Analysis

LVS/DRC

Extraction

Much more than a design tool, Microwave Office software is a complete design flow offering all of the essential technologies: linear and nonlinear circuit simulators, EM analysis tools, layout-vs.-schematic checks, statistical design capabilities, and parametric cell libraries with built-in DRC.

The integrated flow between the Mentor and AWR tools has

enabled us to significantly cut our design times. By concurrently

designing the RF circuits in the context of the rest of the PCB,

we can also reduce our design and manufacturing re-spins,

which helps us meet aggressive time-to-market goals.

Xavier Leblanc, Hardware Tools Manager, PHC

Alcatel-Lucent

Advancing the State of High-Frequency Design Automation

USER-FLEXIBLE DESIGN ENVIRONMENT

Modern PCBs are not only physically dense, but they are also technologically rich,

combining digital, baseband, thermal control, bias management, and RF, all on

the same board. To keep your designs flowing smoothly into production, AWR

integrates with the most popular and powerful PCB platforms. AWR Connected™

solutions support complete front-to-back integration with Mentor Graphics and

others so that bills of material can go forward into manufacturing and traces come

back for DC-to-daylight EM and interconnect analysis.

AWR Connected for Cadence brings Cadence Allegro and APD integration to

AWRDE for AXIEM™, ACE™ or any EM Socket™ solution. For engineering boards

and prototypes, DXF, Gerbers, and drill files can be exported directly from

Microwave Office layouts.

A HOST OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

ACE circuit extraction AWR’s unique microwave circuit extraction technology,

ACE, does what no other interconnect analysis tool can. It converts your gnarliest

PCBs into the RF/microwave netlist—with all the crossovers, vias, and multi-layer

coupled line models—you would have created if you could create that flawless

schematic of trace models of all your lines. ACE even uses method-of-moments

(MoM) and finite element method (FEM) solvers on the densest parts of your

design for improved accuracy, without worrying about the lines that don’t matter as

much. And using ACE’s coupling radius discriminator, you can isolate the handful of

couplings that are limiting your board’s performance.

AXIEM 3D planar EM technology AXIEM, AWR’s 3D planar EM

simulator has transformed RF and microwave design by enabling

EM analysis to be an upfront design diagnostic utility rather than

a pure back-end post-verification tool. AXIEM is tailored to 3D

high-frequency planar components, the heart of today’s electronic

products. It delivers exceptionally accurate EM co-simulation that

is fast and efficient even with the most complex designs. A host of

port types, even for coplanar and differential, with multiple options

for grounded and groundless de-embedding, AXIEM delivers

accurate and results. And if your PCB comes with an integrated

antenna, AXIEM can handle that too.

AWR Connected for Mentor Graphics Expedition enables achieving a concurrent design flow with the real-time bidirectional link between the tools.

AWR Connected for Cadence Allegro enables the extraction of user-specified data from large designs to Microwave Office for verification/simulation.

Vivaldi antenna simulated in AXIEM.

USACorporate Headquarters

AWR Corporation

1960 E. Grand Avenue, Suite 430

El Segundo, CA 90245

+1 310 726 3000

+1 310 726 3005 (fax)

JapanAWR Japan KK

Level 5, 711 Building

7-11-18 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku

Tokyo 160-0023 Japan

+81 3 5937 4803

KoreaAWR Korea Co. Ltd.

B-1412, Intellige-II, 24 Jeongja-dong,

Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si,

Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, 463-811

+82.31.603.7772~3

UKAWR UK

2 Hunting Gate

Hitchin, Herts

SG4 0TJ, UK

+44 (0) 1462 428 428

FinlandAWR – APLAC

Lars Sonckin kaari 16

FI-02600 Espoo, Finland

+358 10 834 5900

FranceAWR France

140 Avenue Champs Elysees

75008 Paris, France

+33 1 70 36 19 63

www.awrcorp.comwww.awr.tv

Copyright © 2010 AWR Corporation. All rights reserved. AWR and the AWR logo, Microwave Office and APLAC are registered trademarks and Visual System Simulator, AXIEM, ACE, Analyst, AWR Design Environment, Unified Data Model, EMSight, Intelligent Net, and X-model are trademarks of AWR Corporation. All others are the property of their respective holders.

BR-MWO-PCB-2010.5.12

Key FeAtUreS oF MicrowAve oFFice For rF PcBS

AWR Design Environment supports a layout-driven design methodology

AWR’s APLAC high-speed, high-capacity harmonic balance and transient simulator for comprehensive and accurate frequency/time-domain simulation

ACE technology delivers fast and accurate interconnect modeling

iNets technology provides automated interconnect construction

EM Socket for easy access to multiple EM simulation and analysis tools, including AWR’s ACE, AXIEM and EMSight technologies

AXIEM 3D planar EM solver technology delivers capacity, accuracy and speed

Collaborative PCB design with Mentor, Cadence, others (optional):

• Full PCB, arbitrary sectioning, select traces & proximity

• Specify layers and shape types

• Layout and schematic creation in AWR

• Drawing layers and colors match Allegro database

• Schematic place holders for components

• Uses iNet technology for traces

• Ready to simulate

• Full dielectric and conductor material definition transfer

• Ports automatically added

• EM verify with ACE, AXIEM , etc.