Issue link: https://resources.system-analysis.cadence.com/i/1354792
TMYTEK Cadence is a pivotal leader in electronic design and computational expertise, using its Intelligent System Design strategy to turn design concepts into reality. Cadence customers are the world's most creative and innovative companies, delivering extraordinary electronic products from chips to boards to systems for the most dynamic market applications. www.cadence.com © 2021 Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Cadence, the Cadence logo, and the other Cadence marks found at www.cadence.com/go/trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 14481 02/21 DB/SA/SS-M-TMYTK/PDF AWR software is a very useful tool that helps us in each phase of a design project. It has many good technologies that streamline our design process. Su-Wei Chang, TMYTEK Figure 3: Simulated antenna radiation patterns for the BBox beamformer system The tool provides different beam-shaping tapering methods, which helped him build the AiP module with only basic knowledge of the beamforming system. After building the module, the layout was imported into the AWR Microwave Office software and the Analyst simulator was used to verify the design. Summary The designer appreciated the integrated technologies and user interface of the AWR software, which streamlined the design process. The iFilter synthesis and phased array generator tools saved significant time on the initial design. The integrated system, circuit, and EM simulators provided performance verification and RF link analysis at the system level. Overall, the AWR software saved the designer an average of 20-30% in design time. The specifications for the 47-53GHz filter passband and rejection band were proving difficult. In addition, the minimum feature was only about 20µm, so accurate simulation was key since the fabrication cost was high. For the 28GHz phased array antenna, the system perfor- mance (Figure 2) of the beamforming and beam shaping required system-level simulation, including antenna design, power combiner design, beamforming system design, and electromagnetic (EM) extraction of the layout. Figure 2: The BBox system diagram The Solution The iFilter filter synthesis wizard within the AWR Microwave Office software helped the designer to synthesize the filter with the desired specifications. It generated the circuit model and the layout and enabled him to perform electromagnetic (EM) simulation of the layout file using the Analyst simulator. Together, these tools helped the designer to finish the design within a short timeframe and delivered excellent agreement between the simulated and measured results. The phased array generator wizard in the AWR VSS software was used to quickly evaluate the results for the 28GHz phased array antenna. The designer was able to implement a single antenna radiation pattern, which could be either EM simulation results or measured results and used the phased array wizard for the beam steering and beam shaping (Figure 3).