One of the most challenging and confusing topics to master for electromagnetic (EM) simulations is that of exciting a given design with the most accurate representation of what one would use when testing the component, module, etc. in a lab environment. Most EM tools refer to these excitations as ports. A new white paper "Demystifying Ports and Grounds In ADS Momentum" provides a thorough reference for the various ports available in ADS Momentum and the appropriate methods to define and apply them.

You're designing a power amplifier and know the optimal load impedance to present to the device you are using. What happens if the load impedance is not at this optimal value? A technique for analyzing RF device behavior under mismatched conditions has been created by designers John Pritiskutch and Craig Rotay of STMicroelectronics and recently published in the June 2008 issue of High Frequency Electronics (pg. 47-49). We've also posted an ADS example showing this technique in our Knowledge Center.

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Many of you have expressed an interest in seeing how other companies are using our EDA products. Here are 2 recent examples:

ELLIPTIKA, designer of custom microwave filters, uses ADS with Momentum to ensure 100% specification matching for high sensitivity filter designs. See the excellent correlation they get between simulation and measurement.

STMicroelectronics used ADS to design and verify a reference design flow for RF/mixed-signal ICs to accelerate the development of sophisticated mixed-signal chipsets used in multi-band, multi-format wireless products. Read more...

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Modelithics, supplier of RF and microwave simulation models, has recently created Application Note 29 that describes the design and optimization of a 5th order lumped element low-pass filter using their CLR library and Genesys EDA software. Request a copy.

ADS Transient-Convolution Simulator Solves Eye Closure Problems. This ten- minute video shows how to analyze and correct bit errors due to reflections on signal lines. This is accomplished using frequency-domain models with the ADS transient-convolution simulator and plotting the eye diagrams to achieve the desired results.

View all our ADS video tutorials.
 

You have 9 balls, equally big, equally heavy. Only one of them is a bit heavier. How would you identify it if you could use a pair of scales only twice? Solution