This week, ANSYS Inc. released version 5.0 of its Ansoft Designer® and Nexxim® software products. The latest version of the software is now available in two new product packages, named DesignerSI™ and DesignerRF™, integrating technology into application-specific engineering platforms for engineers focused on signal integrity analysis or RF and microwave design.
The new added features specifically target the reduction in electronic design and analysis cycle time through faster simulation time, greater accuracy and advanced sensitivity anaylsis. For example, links with ANSYS® DesignXplorer™ software now enable design of experiments, sensitivity studies and six-sigma design. Additionally, a distributed-solve high-performance computing (HPC) capability has been added that allows engineers to analyze process variations within a full signal integrity (SI) analysis across a network of computers. For radio frequency (RF) and microwave design, Ansoft Designer 5.0 with Nexxim 5.0 feature a new system simulation engine that allows engineers to simulate entire wireless systems while linking to highly accurate transistor and electromagnetic models.
The DesignerRF product suite is tailored to the needs of engineers who design radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC), monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC), wireless transmission, system-on-chip (SoC), and other RF and microwave devices. New enhancements for RF and microwave design include:
• System simulator integrated in circuit design with baseband and envelope simulation of advanced communication systems
• Filter synthesis tool that generates ideal and physical filters for circuit and EM tools
• Library expansion through downloadable vendor libraries as well as physical library expansion along with the latest active industry models
• EM improvements with design hierarchy, post-processing variables, thick conductor Q enhancements and parametric snapshot improvements with dynamic links
The DesignerSI package includes the Ansoft Designer integrated schematic capture and layout graphical user interface (GUI), 2-D quasi-static field solver and the Nexxim circuit simulation technology (transient, fast convolution, statistical, and IBIS-AMI). DesignerRF includes the Ansoft Designer desktop, 3-D planar electromagnetic field solver, RF system simulation tool, design synthesis tools, circuit simulation, powered by Nexxim (linear and nonlinear frequency domain). Both packages include a powerful design management front end for the Ansoft best-in-class electromagnetic field simulation technologies HFSS™, Q3D Extractor® and SIwave™ software.
The DesignerSI product suite is ideal for engineers designing high-speed electronic interfaces including XAUI™, XFI, Serial ATA, PCI Express™, HDMI™, DDR, DDR2 and DDR3. Engineers using DesignerSI can leverage its optimization algorithms, design of experiments, tuning and post-processing capabilities for key signal-integrity metrics, such as time-domain reflectometry (TDR), bit-error-rate (BER), timing analysis and eye diagrams. All SI analyses can dynamically link to rigorous electromagnetic extraction. New signal integrity analysis features include:
• IBIS-AMI simulation: fully supports the latest IBIS standard, enabling fast behavioral modeling of electronic systems with silicon vendor-supplied driver and receiver models
• QuickEye™ and VerifEye™ enhancements: separate rise/fall step responses, step response parallel processing, improved BER noise floor and enhanced jitter algorithms
• Design of experiments: large data handling, statistical eye plotting and text array variable support
• Reporter improvements: statistical eye, mixed mode reporting and network data explorer enhancements
• Model enhancements: S and W elements wizard, MATLAB™ models, S model caching and multi-source components