RF Design Blogs

When creating new RFIC modules, designers typically need an array of tools and applications from various vendors to complete the design process. In 2018, Cadence launched the Virtuoso® RF Solution to enable designers to create faster design...

The other day, I happened to sneak out some time for myself after having sent the kids to play in the neighborhood park. I made myself a hot cup of coffee and settled on the couch hoping to enjoy the silence in the house. But was it really ...

Large-signal S-parameters (LSSPs) are an extension of small-signal S-parameters and are defined as the ratio of reflected (or transmitted) waves to incident waves.

The Triple Beat analysis is similar to Rapid IP2/IP3 analysis except that it uses three tones instead of two. It is used in cases where two closely-spaced small-signal inputs from a transmitter leak in to the receiver along with an intended small-signal RF input signal.

In the world of analog design, IP3—the third order intercept point, is a known parameter that is used to measure the linearity in the radio frequency (RF) components. The extracted IP3 values are very essential to determine the operating power ...

Hi All, If you were unable to attend IMS 2017 in June 2017, the IMS MicroApp “7 Habits of Highly Successful S-Parameters” is on our Cadence website. On Cadence Online Support , the in-depth AppNote is here: 20466646 . Best regards, Tawna

Hello Spectre Users, Simulating S-parameters in a time domain (transient, periodic steady state) simulator has been and continues to be a challenge for many analog and RF designers. I'm often asked: What is required in order to achieve accurate...

Did you check out the new Pnoise and Hbnoise Choosing Analyses forms in the MMSIM 15.1 and IC6.1.7 /ICADV12.2 releases? These forms have been significantly improved and simplified. The Direct Plot Form has also been enhanced and is much easy to use. Let...

Hello Spectre RF Users, Next week is my all time favorite technical conference - the International Microwave Symposium IMS2016 , May 22-27 in San Francisco, CA at the Moscone Center. If you're at the conference, please stop by the Cadence booth and say...

Hi Folks, Check out this great new video on YouTube: CDNLive SV 2014: PMC Improves Visibility and Performance with Spectre APS In this video from CDNLive Silicon Valley 2014, Jurgen Hissen, principal engineer, MSCAD, at PMC, discusses an aggressive...

Last year, I wrote a blog post entitled Modeling Oscillators with Arbitrary Phase Noise Profiles . We now have an easier way to do this. Starting in MMSIM 13.1 , you can specify the phase noise as an instance parameter in Spectre sources, including port...

RF Enthusiasts, Come connect with Cadence RF experts and discover the latest advances in Cadence RF technologies, including Spectre RF at the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2014. This year, IMS will be held in Tampa, Florida. Cadence will...

Hi All, Here's another great new feature that I've found very helpful... Broadband SPICE is a new tool for S-parameter simulation in Spectre RF. In the MMSIM13.1.1 ( MMSIM13.1 USR1) release (now available on http://downloads.cadence.com), a...

Hi Folks, A question that I've often received from designers, "Is there a method to determine the amount of memory required before I submit a job? I use distributed processing and need to provide an estimate before submitting jobs." The...

Happy New Year! Have you tried the new Transmission Line Library (rfTlineLib) yet? In case you missed it, rfTlineLib was introduced in IC 6.1.6 ISR1 plus MMSIM 12.1.1 -or- MMSIM13.1. You may wonder....Why should I use the new rfTlineLib ? Well.....here...

It's been a while since you've heard from me...it has been a busy year for sure. One of the reasons I've been so quiet is that I was part of a team working diligently on our latest best kept secret: The MMSIM 12.1.1/MMSIM 13.1 Documentation...

If you are attending the International Microwave Symposium ( IMS 2013 ) in Seattle (June 2-7, 2013) stop by the Cadence Design Systems booth, #427. We will be showing new MMSIM12.1.1 features including “Smart” HB GUI, Robust and easy to...

Greetings, Simulating crystal oscillators got a lot easier in MMSIM12.1... We have made enhancements to both Harmonic Balance and transient analyses. In Part 1 , I discussed Improvements to the Harmonic Balance use model. With the new streamlined Choosing...

Greetings! Simulating Crystal Oscillators got a lot easier in MMSIM12.1... We have made enhancments to both Harmonic Balance and Transient analyses. In Part 1, I’ll cover Improvements to the Harmonic Balance use model. With a streamlined Choosing...

Greetings, MMSIM 12.1 contains many new features to aid RF designers. Many of these changes are described in my Part 1 blog post. I've saved my favorite for last....here's a preview of the changes to the nport component in MMSIM12.1. 1. The Edit Object...

Greetings! MMSIM 12.1 contains many new features to aid RF designers. Here's a preview of the changes... Documentation Improvements The SpectreRF User Guide is being completely rewritten and updated for MMSIM12.1. Check it out - I'm sure you'll really...

Recently I had a question from reader. He asked a good question: "How do you to measure a bipolar transistor's ft when the base-collector voltage, Vbc, is fixed?" Attached is a modified version of the testbench that allows a user to measure ft with a...

When you need to include noisy oscillators in SpectreRF transceiver simulations, you have at least 3 options: 1) Semi-autonomous simulation is the most accurate approach, recommended whenever the transistor-level model of the oscillator is available. 2...

From time to time, SpectreRF users simulate very large, extracted-view circuits in 2+ tone QPSS. In many of those cases, memory requirements exceed the available resources. When that happens and small-signal approximations aren’t applicable, the user...

Several months ago, I started a 3 part series on Guidelines for Maximizing Speed vs Accuracy for Harmonic Balance simulations. Today, I'll discuss part 3 of the 3 part series consisting of: Which Engine: Spectre or APS? Oversample vs Number of Harmon...