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Nport Application Note has been Updated and Re-Released

By Tawna | 3 Jan 2012

Happy New Year! After many requests, I set aside some time and updated the Using the nport in Spectre and SpectreRF Simulations appNote for MMSIM 11.1. You may download the appNote on Cadence Online Support . More nport enhancements are planned, so stay...

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nport | RF | RF Simulation | analog/RF | APS | Virtuoso Spectre | HB | Spectre RF | spectre spectreRF | MMSIM | nport settings | RF Block Simulation | analog | Virtuoso Spectre Simulator XL | spectreRF | Spectre | RF design | harmonic balance
Guidelines for Maximizing Speed vs Accuracy for Harmonic Balance - Part 2

By Tawna | 1 Nov 2011

I am often asked for guidelines on maximizing speed vs. accuracy for SpectreRF harmonic balance simulations . Today, I'll discuss part 2 of the 3 part series consisting of: Which Engine: Spectre or APS? Oversample vs Number of Harmonics Harmonic Tr...

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RF | RF Simulation | analog/RF | HB | Spectre RF | ADE-L | MMSIM | Virtuoso Spectre Simulator GXL | RF spectre spectreRF | Virtuoso Spectre Simulator XL | spectreRF | RF design | harmonic balance
Guidelines for Maximizing Speed vs Accuracy for Harmonic Balance - Part 1

By Tawna | 7 Oct 2011

Greetings, I am often asked for guidelines on maximizing speed vs. accuracy for SpectreRF harmonic balance simulations. In a series of 3 blogs, I'll discuss some of the "knobs" that you can tweak, those being: * Which Engine: Spectre or...

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RF | RF Simulation | analog/RF | APS | HB | Spectre RF | Analog Simulation | Virtuoso Spectre Simulator GXL | ADE | Virtuoso Spectre Simulator XL | spectreRF | RF design | harmonic balance
Measuring Fmax for MOS Transistors

By Art3 | 11 Aug 2011

The following question has come up in comments: "How do I measure F max for an MOS transistor?" The measurement methodology -- testbench, analysis, calculator setup, stimulus, etc.-- does not change whether you are measuring bipolar transistors...

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RF | RF Simulation | analog/RF | Circuit simulation | RFIC | bipolar transistor | MOS transistors | measuring Fmax | Virtuoso | Fmax | RF design | fmax testbench | simulation | bsim3v3
Guidelines for Setting Pnoise/HBnoise Sidebands to Get Accurate Results

By Tawna | 5 Aug 2011

I get quite a few questions from designers along the lines of "How do I set the number of pss/hb harmonics and pnoise/hbnoise sidebands in order to get accurate results?" Here are some general guidelines that I follow: The number of sideban...

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RF | RF Simulation | analog/RF | HBnoise | shooting newton | HB | Spectre RF | pnoise | RF spectre spectreRF | spectreRF | RF design | harmonic balance | pss
Q&A: TI Wireless Team Describes Advanced Phase-Noise Characterization for RF Oscillators Using SpectreRF

By helenet | 15 Jun 2011

In this interview, members of the Texas Instrument wireless group talk about the characterization effort initiated and completed last year between Cadence and IBM using TI RF designs as a pilot. The goal between the two teams was to optimize SpectreRF...

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RF | analog/RF | APS | Circuit simulation | characterization | HB | MMSIM | pnoise | phase noise | analog | Nand Jha | spectreRF | Spectre | Ted Blank | harmonic balance | Texas Instruments | VCO | pss | TI | Oscillator
My Favorite nport Settings for Spectre and SpectreRF

By Tawna | 23 Mar 2011

The nport component located in analogLib can be used in circuits for Spectre and SpectreRF simulations. It is a scattering parameter (S-parameter) based distributed multi-port element. The nport truly is a "black box"… It can be used to model dramatically...

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nport | RF | RF Simulation | Circuit simulation | RFIC | Spectre RF | Analog Simulation | nport settings | Spectre | analogLib
Tips for Simulating a Transmit Mixer in SpectreRF

By Tawna | 10 Mar 2011

Some typical questions that I receive from newer SpectreRF users are: How do I simulate a transmit mixer? How do I look at both upper and lower sidebands? How do I set up my simulation for PAC and Pnoise? When I plot my data, how do the indexes correspond...

6 Comments

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RF | RF Simulation | Spectre RF | ADE-L | Analog Simulation | MMSIM | spectreRF | Spectre | RF design | harmonic balance | mixer
Measuring Transistor fmax

By Art3 | 7 Dec 2010

There were several questions about measuring transistor f max in comments posted to my previous Measuring Transistor f t and Simulating MOS Transistor f t blog posts. So in this posting we will look at simulating transistor s-parameters and device characteristics...

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New Fast Envelope in MMSIM10.1 is *Really* Fast and Accurate!

By Tawna | 15 Nov 2010

Traditionally, envelope analysis is used to simulate circuits with modulated inputs. Envelope analysis is much faster than transient simulation, and is used for simulating spectral regrowth. Regular envelope analysis is "brute force" transistor-level...

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RF | envelope | MMSIM | fast envelope | simulation
Virtuoso APS Supports RF Analyses in MMSIM 7.2 and MMSIM 10.1

By Tawna | 29 Oct 2010

A new multi-threading capability has greatly improved simulation speed for RF Designers! In MMSIM7.2, we introduced APS for Harmonic Balance analyses (multi-threaded harmonic balance simulation). In MMSIM10.1, we added support for APS in Shooting PSS...

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RF | APS | MMSIMM | spectreRF | Spectre
Measure Twice, Cut Once for Transistor ft

By Art3 | 6 Oct 2010

Recently there was an inquiry about the methodology for performing the f t (transition frequency) versus Ic measurement described in my Measuring Transistor f t blog post from July 2008: By bid75 on September 8, 2010 I am unable to understand how ft vs. Ic...

2 Comments

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RF | Ft | ADE-L | Analog Simulation | Measuring Transistor ft | transistor | Analysis | ADE | Virtuoso | parametric | sweep
New Time-Saving Feature in IC6.1.4 ISR2: Plot S-Parameter Data Directly From ViVA!

By Tawna | 20 May 2010

If you haven't heard about it....there is a new feature in IC6.1.4 ISR2 which makes troubleshooting circuits containing nports ( s-parameters ) much easier and faster! Starting i n IC6.1.4 ISR2, you can now plot s-parameters directly in ViVA (without having...

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RFIC | Virtuoso Spectre | Spectre RF | ADE-L | RF designer | MMSIM | Spectre | ViVA | RF design | Circuit Design | harmonic balance | pss
Using RF Simulation Technology for Analog Applications

By Hany | 18 May 2010

The particular nature of analog circuits puts restrictive requirements on circuit simulators. The EDA industry has introduced proven shortcuts to deliver simulation speed and accuracy for specific applications, e.g. Harmonic Balance for RF and partitioning...

3 Comments

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RF Simulation | Analog Simulation | RF design | Analog Smart
Using The Composite Triple Beat Source to Speed up QPSS Analysis

By Tawna | 14 Jan 2010

Say you have a design with 4 input frequencies: 3164M (vco), 1449M (tone0), 1456M (tone1), 1442M (tone2). Currently when you do a qpss analysis, you are inserting a total of 4 separate ports in your schematic and running a simulation. There is a divide...

3 Comments

Tags:

RFIC | QPSS Analysis | CTB | Virtuoso Spectre | Spectre RF | MMSIM | RF Block Simulation | Virtuoso Spectre Simulator GXL | Virtuoso Spectre Simulator XL | spectreRF | RF design | harmonic balance | Composite Triple Beat
NPORT S-Parameter Model Enhancements

By Tawna | 30 Dec 2009

In MMSIM 7.2, two new parameters have been added to the Spectre nport primitive: datatrunc and causality . In MMSIM 7.1, passivity checking was added. The nport now has causality correction, passivity checking and enforcement, and the ability to remove...

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Tags:

Circuit simulation | MMSIM71 | RFIC | Virtuoso Spectre | Spectre RF | MMSIM | RF Block Simulation | Virtuoso Spectre Simulator GXL | Virtuoso Spectre Simulator XL | spectreRF | Spectre | RF design | Circuit Design | harmonic balance
Analyzing Distortion With Spectre RF

By Art3 | 18 Dec 2009

Greetings, In the previous appends, we looked at using Shooting Newton Periodic Steady-State analysis to analyze analog circuits. In this append, we will look at using Harmonic Balance Periodic Steady-State, HBPSS, to analyze analog circuits. HBPSS is...

5 Comments

Tags:

Spectre RF | RF design | pss | FFT | Distortion
RF Measurement Library: Capturing Circuit Characterization Setups on the Schematic

By alanw | 16 Jul 2009

Another design approach that Cadence supports that may not be obvious to all users… The process of setting up a circuit simulation has historically been one of setting up all of the simulation control parameters (i.e. which analysis you want...

5 Comments

Tags:

Circuit simulation | RFIC | custom design | RF design | design framework | RF Measurement library
Periodic Steady-State Analysis for DC-to-DC Converters

By Art3 | 30 Jun 2009

In " Spectre RF by any other name ...", a non-RF application for Spectre RF's periodic steady-state analysis was introduced. An example of using periodic steady-state analysis [PSS] to simulate the dynamic performance: THD and SFDR, of a switched...

10 Comments

Tags:

DAC | shooting newton | Spectre RF | THD | DC-to-DC converters | RF design | pss | SFDR
Join us at the Cadence booth at the International Microwave Symposium

By Hany | 8 Jun 2009

If you listened to Tom's advice on this blog two months ago and registered for the International Microwave Symposium or the RFIC symposium, then you should be at the Boston Convention center now enjoying RFIC talks. Please remember that we are waiting...

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RFIC | Spectre RF | Virtuoso | RF design | International Microwave Symposium
Enhanced pnoise Algorithm to Compute Phase-Noise for VCOs with Bandgap Voltage Reference

By helenet | 1 May 2009

Accurate phase-noise characterization is critical in the design of RF and microwave communication systems. SpectreRF ’s shooting PSS/Pnoise analysis has been the golden simulator for the phase-noise simulation, and close correlation between the simulation...

2 Comments

Tags:

DC | MMSIM | IC Voltage | RF design | VCO
2009 RFIC Symposium in Boston - Are You Going?

By TomC | 27 Apr 2009

If you are an RFIC designer then I hope you are planning on attending the 2009 RFIC Symposium and the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) which will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, as the centerpieces of Microwave Week 2009, scheduled from Sunday...

1 Comments

Tags:

RFIC | Virtuoso Spectre Simulator XL | spectreRF | Spectre | RF design | Circuit Design | harmonic balance | wireless integrated circuit verification
Spectre RF By Any Other Name ...

By Art3 | 22 Apr 2009

It has been a while since I last appende d , hope you are well! It was a little bit difficult to come up with a subject to write about and then recently I was in a meeting where we were talking about transient noise analysis. A designer was discussing...

6 Comments

Tags:

DAC | ADC | Spectre RF | RF design
Setting VIVA Waveform Color Defaults When Using ADE

By dondnile | 21 Apr 2009

I found myself getting a little bit frustrated with some of the default colors that would come up in the VIVA waveform tool while I was plotting from the Analog Design Environment (ADE). After working with Kabir, the Product Engineer for VIVA, I discovered...

7 Comments

Tags:

MMSIM71 | Virtuoso Spectre | spectreRF | Spectre | RF design
Setting Up Harmonic Balance - Part 1

By dondnile | 18 Mar 2009

This is the first of a series of Blogs to talk about how to fill out the forms for Harmonic Balance . I will include our suggested settings and some helpful hints. I will add to these over time as new things come up both from us and our customer base. ...

3 Comments

Tags:

MMSIM71 | Spectre RF | spectreRF | RF design | harmonic balance

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