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Cadence at IMS 2022

• 4 minute read

RF Design Solutions for Next-Generation Products

cadence at ims

The International Microwave Symposium (IMS2022), otherwise known as Microwave Week, was recently held (June 19-24) at the Denver Convention center, returning to its long-standing glory as the world's largest and most important conference and exhibition dedicated to RF/microwave theory and technology. The well-attended event was flush with energy and excitement as conference attendees and exhibitingc ompanies shared three years worth of product and technology developments since the previous face-to-face meeting.

For Cadence, this year's symposium and exhibition was the first in-person IMS since we greatly expanded our solutions for RF design and analysis with the acquisition of AWR (Microwave Office circuit simulation), Integrand (EMX Planar 3D Solver), and the release of internally developed multiphysics solvers (Clarity 3D FEM and Celsius Thermal analysis).  To educate attendees on all these new developments, the Cadence booth featured 6 demo stations staffed by RF technical experts and an in-booth theatre for customers and partners to present their Cadence-enabled design successes. The tremendous amount of energy and interest coming directly from the show floor traffic made the Cadence booth feel like the epicenter of exhibition activity. In addition, the Cadence booth was easily accessed from its central position on the show floor. As they say in real estate, its' all about location, location, location, (and great demos).

So if you were not able to attend or have trouble retaining all the information that was presented during Microwave Week, here's a brief recap of Cadence highlights at IMS 2022. And stay tuned for more videos and in-depth technical content featuring our latest RF solutions.

Featured Demos  

The Cadence demo stations were organized by design/analysis focus and manufacturing technology, allowing booth visitors to zero in on the Cadence solution and suite of products that best suited their particular needs. 

The MMIC and RF PCB design stations showcased the latest capabilities in Microwave Office software, AXIEM 3D planar EM analysis, Visual System Simulator, Clarity 3D Solver, Celsius Thermal Solver, and Allegro PCB Designer. Both demo stations featured example projects showcasing the latest solutions for design and analysis of III-V and Si MMICs, package integration and analysis, and PCB-based design, analysis and workflow integration. Demonstrations of our new thermal analysis for RF power applications for both MMIC and PCB-based designs were extremely popular and well-received by booth visitors. Based on the integration of the Celsius Thermal solver within the Cadence AWR Design Environment, the common reaction was "WOW!!!!". Attendees were blown away by the level of integration, ease of use and overall usefulness of having thermal analysis data available directly from their Microwave Office designs. No more waiting 3 weeks for thermal results from the mechanical team. Also in the category of saving turnaround time with in-design analysis, a demonstration of the new Clarity 3D FEM integration in the AWR Design environment showed designers how to perform in-situ,l arge-scale EM analysis of a high-power MMIC PA inside a QFN package on PCB to identify parasitics, resonances and inadvertent coupling that impacts performance and leads to multiple re-designs.

Attendees were quick to recognize the immediate benefits offered by the latest developments in Cadence's MMIC, RFIC and multichip module solutions with Microwave Office support for silicon MMIC-style design through Virtuoso PDK re-use, the new Microwave Office to Virtuoso interoperability workflow, and Virtuoso (Spectre Netlist) co-simulation in Microwave Office. Together, these features allow unprecedented levels of interoperability between the Microwave Office platform and  Virtuoso platform for front-end design of Si and III-V MMICs, RFIC blocks and module/SiP integration and seamless workflows for back-end layout, DRC, and signoff. As one company, Cadence is able to offer interoperability based on core technology re-use between design platforms allowing multiple workflow benefits to the end users, including:

  • Virtuoso PDK enablement for Microwave Office supports design capture of Si-based MMICs in AWR Design Environment with fully functional PCells and SKILL callbacks including inductors with EMX enablement
  • Virtuoso PDK simulation with APLAC simulator in AWR Design Environment
  • AWR designs can be shared with the Virtuoso environment and attached to the original Virtuoso PDK with no loss of design data

The multiphysics demo station was primarily dedicated to showcasing features in the Clarity 3D finite-element method (FEM) simulator for EM analysis of large-scale RF and high-speed structures. While this solver is also fully integrated into the AWR, Virtuoso and Allegro design platforms, the examples shown at this station focused on capabilities of the solver when used directly within the Clarity 3D workbench, including examples to study and mitigate desense-related issues, antenna design and integration (medical, military, commercial, ADAS, 5G), optimization and the recently introduced component encryption for IP protection feature, supporting encrypted connector models and passive components (capacitors, inductors and resistors) with 3D EM model fidelity.

The RFIC and RF module demo stations featured capabilities specific to the Virtuoso® Design Platform​ and Virtuoso RF Solution including improvements in RFIC and RF module co-design flows with Virtuoso RF Solution​ and Edit-in-Concert technology for simultaneous editing of multiple ICs and modules across different (heterogeneous) technologies. Transmission line synthesis and modeling capabilities based on the PCell Designer and EMX planar solver were also on display including a new cross-section editor, analysis speed and accuracy demonstrations of the ​EMX modeling engine for on-chip planar structures, ​scalable length RLCG models​ and new fluid Tline PCells that support on-demand transmission line editing functions such as stretch, bend, chop, etc.

Stayed tuned for videos from Cadence at IMS.

In-booth Presentations

The in-booth theatre located directly opposite of the demo stations featured talks from 3D Glass, Tower Semiconductor, UMS, Rohde & Schwarz, SPEC, Modelithics and HRL. Topics covered new PDK development for GaN MMICs (HRL and UMS), SiGe BiCMOS technology (Tower Semiconductor), 3D RF and photonic integrated passive devices (3D Glass), new AWR libraries and Clarity encrypted 3D models (Modelithics), reference design kits based on MMICs and substrate-integrated-waveguides (SPEC) and power amplifier simulations with wireless standard compliant waveforms and digital pre-distortion technology from Rhode & Schwarz.

All in all it was a successful IMS and a great show for Cadence and customers alike. If you were not able to make the event and are interested in any of the topics discussed, please reach out to your Cadence account team and we would be happy to arrange a private demo for your RF team.

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