Cadence RF Design Blogs

SpectreRF at 2013 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium in Seattle, Washington

Tawna — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:06:00 GMT

If you are attending the International Microwave Symposium ( IMS 2013 ) in Seattle (June 2-7, 2013) stop by the Cadence Design Systems booth, #427. We will be showing new MMSIM12.1.1 features including “Smart” HB GUI, Robust and easy to use...(read more)

Simulating Crystal Oscillators is Much Easier in MMSIM12.1 - Part 2

Tawna — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:00:00 GMT

Greetings, Simulating crystal oscillators got a lot easier in MMSIM12.1... We have made enhancements to both Harmonic Balance and transient analyses. In Part 1 , I discussed Improvements to the Harmonic Balance use model. With the new streamlined Choosing...(read more)

Simulating Crystal Oscillators is Much Easier in MMSIM12.1 - Part 1

Tawna — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:00:00 GMT

Greetings! Simulating Crystal Oscillators got a lot easier in MMSIM12.1... We have made enhancments to both Harmonic Balance and Transient analyses. In Part 1, I’ll cover Improvements to the Harmonic Balance use model. With a streamlined Choosing...(read more)

MMSIM 12.1 SpectreRF -- Preview of Coming nport Attractions! Part 2

Tawna — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Greetings, MMSIM 12.1 contains many new features to aid RF designers. Many of these changes are described in my Part 1 blog post. I've saved my favorite for last....here's a preview of the changes to the nport component in MMSIM12.1. 1. The Edit...(read more)

MMSIM12.1 SpectreRF Preview of Coming Attractions! - Part 1

Tawna — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Greetings! MMSIM 12.1 contains many new features to aid RF designers. Here's a preview of the changes... Documentation Improvements The SpectreRF User Guide is being completely rewritten and updated for MMSIM12.1. Check it out - I'm sure you'll...(read more)

Measuring Bipolar Transistor ft with Fixed Base-Collector Voltage

Art3 — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:54:00 GMT

Recently I had a question from reader. He asked a good question: "How do you to measure a bipolar transistor's ft when the base-collector voltage, Vbc, is fixed?" Attached is a modified version of the testbench that allows a user to measure...(read more)

Modeling Oscillators with Arbitrary Phase Noise Profiles

Tawna — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:00:00 GMT

When you need to include noisy oscillators in SpectreRF transceiver simulations, you have at least 3 options: 1) Semi-autonomous simulation is the most accurate approach, recommended whenever the transistor-level model of the oscillator is available....(read more)

Measuring 2-Tone Intermodulation Using Envelope-Following Analysis

Tawna — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:01:00 GMT

From time to time, SpectreRF users simulate very large, extracted-view circuits in 2+ tone QPSS. In many of those cases, memory requirements exceed the available resources. When that happens and small-signal approximations aren’t applicable, the...(read more)

Guidelines for Maximizing Speed vs. Accuracy in SpectreRF simulations - Part 3

Tawna — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:44:00 GMT

Several months ago, I started a 3 part series on Guidelines for Maximizing Speed vs Accuracy for Harmonic Balance simulations. Today, I'll discuss part 3 of the 3 part series consisting of: Which Engine: Spectre or APS? Oversample vs Number of Harmonics...(read more)

SpectreRF AppNotes and Tutorials....Still One of our Best Kept Secrets!

Tawna — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:25:00 GMT

Some of you may remember the blog written several years ago " Shhhhh...SpectreRF Tutorials and AppNotes - One of Our Best Kept Secrets ". Well, the more things change...the more things stay the same! The location of these tutorials and appNotes...(read more)