Agilent Technologies - Advanced Design System for RF and Microwave High-Power Device Models Receives AMCAD Engineering Endorsement

Thanks to Agilent's ADS software, AMCAD is now able to provide its wireless communications and aerospace/defense customers with advanced high-power device models that are:

* well conditioned -- the models enable fast simulation without convergence issues;
* accurate in DC and the RF domain, from linear to highly nonlinear operating conditions;
* complete -- the models include self-heating phenomena, dynamic thermal behavior and trapping effects; and
* versatile -- the models are usable for harmonic balance multi-tone and transient analysis.

With a number of system integrators now externalizing components, the RF/microwave design chain has changed, said Saliou Dieye, EMEA marketing manager with Agilent's EEsof EDA division. Agilent EEsof's mission is to enable a smooth design chain in which both stakeholders can easily and reliably exchange design information. Our collaboration with AMCAD -- both in design and measurement -- brings tremendous value to our common customers.

While electro-thermal effects and pulsed-mode operation modes are important parameters in high-power devices, they are not easily accounted for in simulation models, said Stéphane Dellier, RF and Microwave project leader with AMCAD Engineering. Through the ADS platform, with its unique set of features oriented toward our advanced high-power device models, our engineers can now effectively express all of their know-how. The resulting models have our highest confidence, as well as that of our customers, such as Thales Alenia Space.

Maintaining a high competitive level in the difficult space industrial market, while saving both time and cost, today demands that designers succeed with their designs in 'one shot,' said Dominique Langrez, head of the Microwave Building Block Design Group at Thales Alenia Space. Using realistic and accurate component models is one key to achieving this goal and is especially critical for us in the MMIC design field. AMCAD provides us with the complex electrical models (such as linear, non-linear, thermal, and hot or cold transistor) we need to meet this goal, directly implemented in the commercial CAD software ADS.