Ansoft Designer 6.0 Integrates HFSS and HSPICE into a Common Design FlowAnsoft Designer 6.0 Integrates HFSS and HSPICE into a Common Design Flow
August 6, 2010

As part of its vision to improve engineering productivityand help reduce development costs, ANSYShas released Ansoft Designer 6.0, a new version of the platform with Solver onDemand, new technology that lets electronic design engineers analyzesignal-integrity, power-integrity and electromagnetic interference (EMI)problems from a single schematic- and layout-based environment.
With Ansoft Designer 6.0, high-speed electronics andRF/microwave designers can access field and circuit simulation tools whiledesigning electronic packages and printed circuit boards (PCBs) early in thedesign cycle, as opposed to later in the process when expensive manufacturingcosts can be incurred. ANSYS' new Solver on Demand technology integrates HFSS GB pound ,3-D electromagnetic field simulation software from ANSYS and HSPICE, the integratedcircuit simulation tool from Synopsys, within the Ansoft Designer 6.0 designplatform. The resulting benchmark design flow can be tapped to predict howhigh-frequency electromagnetic components affect the integrated circuits.
While electromagnetic field simulation can be achallenge for electrical engineers due to the requirements of 3-D modeling,building HFSS directly into Ansoft Designer 6.0 mitigates many of thosebottlenecks, ANSYS officials say. Models of RFIC layout, IC packages and printedcircuit boards from Cadence Design Systems,Mentor Graphics and Zuken can be imported directly to AnsoftDesigner and solved in HFSS without any further setup. The package layout canalso be parameterized to compute tuning and sensitivity to understand impedancevariations due to process.
Ansoft Designer 6.0 provides a powerful userinterface to HSPICE with direct links to HFSS and access to the ANSYS QuickEyeand VerifEye convolution and statistical eye analysis as well as IBIS-AMItechnology.
"Ever-smaller and sophisticated electronicproducts integrate digital and wireless technologies, creating tough new designchallenges for RF performance, system signal integrity and EMI, low power and communicationsreliability," says Lawrence Williams, director of product management,Electronics Business Unit at ANSYS. "Partnering with Synopsys allows our jointcustomers to tackle these challenges."
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