Virtuoso Meets Maxwell: Virtuoso RF Solution—The Flow Revolution Enters the Next Level

24 Feb 2021 • 6 minute read

'Virtuoso Meets Maxwell' is a blog series aimed at exploring the capabilities and potential of Virtuoso RF Solution and Virtuoso MultiTech. So, how does Virtuoso meets Maxwell? Now, the Virtuoso platform supports RF designs, and the RF designers measure the physical and radiation effects by using the Maxwell's equations. In addition to providing insights into the useful software enhancements, this series broadcasts the voices of different bloggers and experts about their knowledge and experience of various tools in the Virtuoso IC-Packaging world along with the nuances of RF, microwave, and high frequency designs. Watch out for our posts on Mondays.

In many ways 2020 was an exceptional year with extraordinary challenges for all of us. Despite the unusual circumstances of a global pandemic, it was an exciting year with lot of product innovation that lies behind. To start with the Virtuoso Meets Maxwell series in 2021, let’s take a moment to look back at what we have achieved since the inception of the Virtuoso RF Solution.

It was in October 2018 when Cadence released a new Virtuoso platform for advanced IC design methodologies and introduced Virtuoso RF Solution—a design environment that enables IC-package co-design and co-verification within a single environment. The Virtuoso RF Solution addressed a long-standing need to replace error-prone flows based on disjointed design tools by an integrated solution.

Deepti’s blog Virtuoso: The Next Overture - Virtuoso RF Solution for High Frequency Product Designs gave excellent insight into the challenges of IC/module/packages/board design and presented the vision of the Virtuoso RF Solution to overcome these challenges. Indeed, these challenges were not new. Instead, an exploding RF market urged the need for a “big idea” and accelerated the development of innovative technologies to overcome existing limitations.

In the first Virtuoso Meets Maxwell blog Virtuoso RF Solution - Revolution Begins with a Common Goal for One Flow, Virtuoso RF Solution architect Michael Thompson talked about his impressions from the IMS 2019 in Boston, a place that breathes the spirit of RF innovation and can be considered as the birth place of modern microwave theory.

Microwave engineers working at the MIT Radiation Labs in the early 1940s built the foundation of high-frequency-based technology that led to modern RF technologies, such as 5G, automotive radar systems, and more.

While the RF market showed exponential growth during the last 10–20 years in which design complexity increased dramatically, design flows haven’t really changed during that time. RF designers still use a set of disjointed design and analysis tools that require lot of manual steps to be glued together. Even today an RF designer must still spend a considerable amount of her time to worry about data management and bookkeeping of results instead of focusing on what she is best at, that is, developing the next-generation RF products. This is not only a dissatisfying waste of time and engineering excellence but also very often leads to several unnecessary and expensive design re-spins. Not surprising that it was in Boston when Cadence generated considerable excitement and interest by showcasing a comprehensive RF and SiP design solution.

Now, what happened since the early days of the Virtuoso RF Solution? How did Cadence pursue the great vision of building a groundbreaking RF design flow that allows RF designers to focus on design innovation rather than worrying about ECO challenges and bookkeeping?

During the 21 months that have passed since the IMS conference in Boston, Cadence continued the expansion into 5G RF communication and further enhanced its Intelligent System Design strategy for RF and mmWave applications. With the acquisition of AWR Corporation in December 2019 and Integrand Software, Inc. in February 2020, Cadence extended its offerings for a comprehensive RF solution to address the broad variety of RF technologies and applications.

Clearly, there is no one-technology-fits-all-problems approach. Instead, designers need a way to conveniently choose the tools and methodologies that are best suited for their application. Thanks to in-house developments and recent acquisitions, the Virtuoso RF Solution now provides access to Quantus Extraction Solution, EMX Planar 3D Solver for silicon passive design and analysis, AXIEM Planar 3D Solver for III-V processes, package, and planar antenna, along with the Clarity 3D Solver to choose the right tool for both RFIC and cross-fabric EM analysis. The addition of Integrand’s EMX technology allows the RF designer to perform a layered extraction by combining the results of Quantus Extraction Solution with her preferred EM extraction tool.

And our customers confirm and appreciate the value Cadence provides by tightly integrating the Virtuoso RF design platform with EM simulation, Quantus Extraction Solution, and Spectre RF Option circuit simulation. In a recent article in DeepChip, RF developers vividly illustrate how the Virtuoso RF Solution, EMX Planar 3D Solver, and Spectre RF Option integration translates into huge efficiency gain and stress reduction for the engineering team. Doesn’t this precisely match the initial vision of the Virtuoso RF Solution, that is, freeing the RF engineer from bookkeeping to enable real innovation?

In addition, the solution is entering the photonics world. Rockley Photonics collaborated with Cadence to achieve a first-pass success with significant performance improvement over legacy design flows to develop a complex system-in-package solution for hyperscale data centers as mentioned in the journal.

Using the Clarity 3D Solver from within the Virtuoso RF Solution, Rockley engineers modeled the coupling between chiplets, the board, and the high-speed transmission lines to the photonics chiplet. Advancements in the IC+package implementation and EM solver integration helped streamlining the flows by bringing the necessary and simulation capabilities for photonic-integrated circuits into the Virtuoso environment.

Now, what’s next?

While existing Cadence RF technologies have a strong focus on Silicon processes, the AWR team has great experience with analyses and device models specialized for GaAs and GaN III-V semiconductors. Similar to the tight integration of the AXIEM Planar 3D Solver, other AWR simulation technologies complement the existing RF design technologies and provide great opportunities.

Going forward, the seamless integration of the AWR technology, which is used to design wireless products for complex high-frequency RF applications, with the industry-leading Virtuoso platform will overcome traditional and highly error-prone RF/microwave design and verification flows. This will result in increasing productivity and achieving first-pass right results. In 2021, customers will start to benefit from our continuous effort to provide a tight integration between AWR and Cadence products.

Claudia Roesch

Related Resources

For more information on Cadence circuit design products and services, visit www.cadence.com.

About Virtuoso Meets Maxwell

Virtuoso Meets Maxwell series includes posts about the next-generation die, package, and board design flow with a focus on reinventing and optimizing the design process to ensure that the designer remains a designer! Keep watching!

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