Design efficiency goes up when you don't have to disrupt your flow to use a standalone EM simulator. The latest release of ADS 2008 (Update 2) includes speed and capacity improvements to our integrated 3D EM simulator, EMDS-for-ADS, which enables you to run full 3D EM co-simulation on your designs with at least double efficiency over un-integrated EM tools. And the best part is that if you are familiar with Momentum (planar EM) you'll be up and running in EMDS-for-ADS in no time!

Momentum has had some serious improvements lately too! A new NlogN solver tackles problems up to 6x larger than previously possible and solving them 5x faster. Plus it can now perform multi-frequency point simulation in parallel using Momentum-Turbo 8-pack bundle licenses. These improvements make it possible to use EM simulations as an interactive design tool instead of just a sign-off verification tool.

And let's not forget AMDS, our full 3D EM simulator based on FDTD methods. It now contains links to ADS libraries and allows you to create your own simulation libraries to link your antenna design and EM simulation to the complete circuit and system design you created in ADS.

Download ADS 2008 Update 2.

Signal integrity designers should note that the ADS Transient-Convolution Simulator now takes advantage of multi-core processors to deliver up to an 3 times improvement in speed (compared to previous release), making it the fastest transient simulator on the market. Combined with the EMDS-for-ADS simulator, ADS2008 is now capable of modeling the entire high-speed channel and simulating it in the time domain.

Find out what else is new in ADS 2008 Update 2

There are many EM simulation technologies and tools available in the market. To help you determine which is best for a particular job, we have created a new series of application examples that we call EM Insights. For the next several months we highlight new "episodes" that represent a specific design challenge and shows how the appropriate Agilent EM simulation tool can help.

Episode 1- QFN Package Shows a 3x3[mm],16-pin QFN package is optimized to improve the frequency performance using EMDS-for-ADS.

Episode 2 - Single and Multi-Band Microstrip Planar Array Demonstrates how the new improvements to Momentum (planar EM) aids designers of large array of microstrip patch antennas.

Episode 3 - Wireless Network Card Antenna Design Demonstrates the ultra fast simulation capability of Antenna Modeling Design System (AMDS) to test and verify various different configurations and sizes of antenna.

Modelithics, a supplier of RF and microwave simulation models, has recently created Application Note 30, "Large-Signal LDMOS Model Simulation using Agilent Genesys Software". This application note guides you through simulation of DC IV, S-parameters and swept power data of an LDMOS transistor in Genesys. The sample LDMOS model used in this application note is a Motorola-Electro-Thermal (MET) model extracted by Modelithics.

If you are involved in MMIC design, you'll want to check out our new MMIC seminar site that contains heaps of useful material on Front-to-Back MMIC design with ADS. From videos, seminar presentations, ADS design projects, to hands-on workshop materials, you can access this valuable material when ever you need.

The industry press is a great place to learn about the latest Agilent EEsof EDA product applications. Here are some recent articles written by industry designers using our products in noteworthy applications.

• Design An X-Band Vivaldi Antenna (Part 1), Microwaves & RF, July 2008
• Design An X-Band Vivaldi Antenna (Part 2), Microwaves & RF, Aug 2008
• Microstrip Bandpass Filter at S Band Using Capacitive Coupled Resonator, PIER
• Designing and Simulating a Wireless LAN antenna, Microwave Engineering Europe, June 2008

Three friends divided some arrows equally. After all of them shot 4 arrows, the total number of arrows remaining is equal to the arrows each had after the original division. Find the original number of arrows. Solution