News

19 January 2009

 

AWR acquires STAAR for parallelized 3D FEM electromagnetic technology

AWR Corp of El Segundo, CA, USA, which provides high-frequency electronic design automation (EDA) software, has acquired Simulation Technology and Applied Research Inc (STAAR) of Mequon, WI, a developer of three-dimensional (3D) parallelized FEM (finite-element model) tools for electromagnetic (EM) simulation of components and subsystems operating at RF and microwave frequencies.

STAAR is now a subsidiary of AWR Corp, but retains its operations and facilities in Wisconsin under the continued guidance of founder Dr John DeFord.

AWR says that it chose STAAR after spending much of 2008 evaluating 3D EM technologies and firms in response to customer demand for a seamlessly integrated 3D FEM tool within the AWR Design Environment.

STAAR, a profitable company that was launched in 1997, has developed proprietary parallelized 3D FEM EM simulation and analysis capability, embodied in its Analyst software. Analyst software is the result of more than a decade of development at STAAR in collaboration with the US Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, and has been employed to analyze extremely complex RF and microwave structures at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and Naval Research Laboratory.

“The entire team at STAAR is delighted that our Analyst technology was found to be the most compelling 3D FEM EM software for AWR to offer to its customer base,” says DeFord. “STAAR’s product line, corporate philosophy of simulation accuracy and scalability, along with excellent customer service, aligns well with AWR’s corporate culture,” he adds. “Analyst software is a natural complement to AWR’s existing product portfolio, and we're excited by the prospect of taking the Analyst solution global via AWR’s worldwide sales, marketing, and support organization.”

Analysis of EM fields in complex structures, such as complete monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), densely populated RF circuit boards, and multifunction modules, frequently requires large amounts of memory and processing power that can overburden even the most capable existing 'high-end' workstations, AWR says. Many of these problems can be solved, but with limited accuracy for want of greater system resources. Analyst software addresses this deficiency by employing scalable decomposition algorithms to optimize cluster computing resources, resulting in dramatically reduced computation times, improved accuracy, and a greater return on investment in computer hardware, it is claimed. By supporting both shared- and distributed-memory systems, the Analyst 3D FEM EM tool can be easily configured to work with common computing architectures.

AWR’s VP of marketing Sherry Hess says that STAAR’s 3D FEM EM analysis technologies complement AWR’s existing EM solutions such as the award-winning AXIEM 3D planar EM simulator (strong demand for which drove AWR’s 2008 revenue up by more than 22% on 2007). “Analyst’s novel parallelized 3D FEM technologies provide exceptional power and scalability beyond anything available on the market today, and alongside AXIEM 3D planar EM software gives designers the ability to solve a wide range of designs,” she claims.

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