22 June 2012

Agilent’s ADS selected by Sivers for front-to-back silicon RFIC implementation

Sivers IMA AB of Kista, Sweden, which makes microwave products for telecoms, industrial and test & measurement applications, has selected the Advanced Design System 2011 electronic design automation (EDA) platform of Agilent Technologies Inc of Santa Clara, CA, USA for complete silicon-based RFIC/MMIC implementation.

“We are expanding our peak-performance millimeter-wave product portfolio toward silicon-based, proprietary MMIC [monolithic microwave integrated circuit] designs to leverage the advantages of higher integration and reduced cost,” says Sivers IMA’s chief technology officer Christer Stoij. “We selected ADS for the complete front-to-back implementation of corresponding devices because it delivers proven RF circuit simulation, integrated EM solvers and RF-relevant backend support,” he adds. “ADS is designed for our type of application, allowing us to introduce new unique products for E-band and V-band radio links, with full control of the millimeter-wave architecture.”

The ADS platform provides a complete RFIC design flow — including layout, enhanced foundry-certified PDKs (process design kits), LVS (layout versus schematic) and DRC (design rule checker) — which is crucial for successful implementation of wireless front-ends, according to Agilent. The scalable front-to-back solution not only facilitates the job of the RFIC designer from the beginning, but also directly integrates with other domains such as RF modules and RF system-in-package design.

Key ADS features help to simplify and speed the design flow. For example, ADS Layout features an RFIC toolbar for easier, more efficient physical design and trace routing. Desktop DRC and LVS help to verify and correct layouts against foundry design rule checks prior to tape-out and catch errors early in the design cycle, all from the user's desktop. In addition, ADS' integrated 3D planar EM simulator, Momentum, combines full-wave and quasi-static EM solvers for simplified passive, interconnect and parasitic modeling. Moreover, the ADS design kit for the IHP 0.13μm silicon germanium (SiGe) process (SG13S) used in a first project supports a complete ADS front-to-back design flow with design rule check for most recurring rules.

“The popularity of the ADS platform for silicon-based RFIC design has grown tremendously over the years, bolstered by our significant expansion of ADS design kit support,” says Juergen Hartung, RFIC marketing manager for Agilent EEsof EDA. “Customers can now use these kits for a variety of RF CMOS, RF SOI [silicon-on-insulator] and SiGe BiCMOS technologies to enjoy full back-end support that includes schematic-driven layout creation, layout-versus-schematic check, and integrated 3D planar electromagnetic and 3D-FEM [finite-element method] simulators.”

Tags: Agilent EDA software

Visit: www.agilent.com/find/eesof-ADS

Visit: www.siversima.com