Agilent rolls RFIC simulation, verification, analysis tool
Agilent Technologies has unleashed an RFIC simulation, verification and analysis software that provides RFIC designers with easy-to-use EVM-, BER- and ACPR-type measurements and enables them to quickly analyze and diagnose problem areas in large-signal analysis. The GoldenGate 2013.10 also offers a number of capabilities to reduce simulation time and increase design efficiency.
Advanced wireless standards such as LTE Advanced (4G) and 802.11ac (WLAN) put high demands on linearity, bandwidth and noise performance, which is changing the nature of transceiver IC design. GoldenGate 2013 introduced verification test benches that allow RFIC designers to easily validate and optimize their designs using standard-compliant waveforms and measurements such as EVM/ACLR in transmitters, or sensitivity/desensitization in receivers.
The tool also provides a host of technologies to explore, analyze and optimize RF circuits early in the design cycle. With this latest release, a new sensitivity analysis has been added that can be applied when analyzing RF circuits, even when running large-signal analyses.
GoldenGate 2013 introduces several enhancements that cover a range of applications.
The fast circuit envelope (FCE) model export from GoldenGate to SystemVue, now includes noise support that is critical for any receiver test (e.g., sensitivity/desensitization). FCE creates a model that is used in SystemVue to represent the degradation due to the RFIC in system-level simulations without facing much of a performance impact.
Fast yield contributor support in envelope transient and S-parameter analyses provides a dramatic speed-up of Monte Carlo simulations for process and mismatch variations. It also provides a contributor table to identify root cause devices and/or blocks. In addition, core solver improvements include a new oscillator algorithm that specifically targets high-Q oscillators and high-level transient accuracy control.
Automatic steady-state detection and auto-harmonic estimation within initial transient reduces simulation time and increases design efficiency. Likewise, the latest version features a broad range of usability enhancements within the graphical user interface, results display and post-processing functionality. Examples include new band spectrum functions for envelope transient measurements or mean value, and standard deviation for each noise source within the noise contribution table.
It offers model support for UTSOI v1.14 and v2.0, and Angelov GaN, as well as model release updates for HICUM level0 1.31 and NXP's SiMKit version 4.0 and 4.01.
- Julien Happich
EE Times Europe
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