AWR Corp., a leader in high-frequency electronic design automation (EDA), announced the release and immediate availability of a new process design kit (PDK) supporting the Cree Inc. high-power gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) foundry process. The new Cree/AWR PDK enables MMIC designers to model Cree’s GaN HEMT MMIC process within AWR’s Microwave Office® software environment and enables the design of MMICs that offer more power bandwidth, higher efficiency, and a smaller footprint than can be achieved using conventional technologies such as GaAs.

The Cree GaN HEMT MMIC process features high power density (4 to 6 W/mm) transistors, slot vias and high reliability (up to 225°C operating channel temperatures), as well as scalable transistors. In addition, the Cree/AWR PDK leverages AWR’s Intelligent Net (iNet™) automated interconnect construction technology to automatically radius and fillet corners when connecting different parts together, thereby ensuring design-rule-check (DRC)-compliant layouts and eliminating the need for manual editing. The Cree/AWR PDK is also set up for ready electromagnetic (EM) extraction through AWR’s EXTRACT technology, which can save designers’ time by not having to manually edit schematics for EM results.