Cadence Design Systems, Inc. announced that Sequans Communications S.A., a 4G and 5G IoT solutions company, has successfully adopted the Cadence® Virtuoso® RF Solution, including the Cadence Spectre® X RF Simulator and Cadence EMX® Planar 3D Solver, for high frequency RF harmonic balance and electromagnetic (EM) analysis and signoff, to develop its next-generation 5G IoT platform. Sequans also used the Cadence AWR® Visual System Simulator™ (VSS) software to predict and measure overall system performance and functionality in support of the 5G NR and IoT communication standards. The comprehensive, full-suite solution from Cadence enabled Sequans engineers to achieve a 2x performance improvement versus its legacy solution and reduce time to market while ensuring a high level of accuracy.

“Designing 5G IoT devices is simultaneously a complex engineering challenge where designers must address stringent 5G performance specs as well as a cost-conscious exercise to meet the price targets of the IoT marketplace,” said Bertrand Debray, executive vice president and GM, Broadband IoT at Sequans. ”The Cadence Virtuoso Layout Suite EXL, powered by the Cadence EMX Planar 3D Solver, gives our engineers advanced capabilities within a single unified design environment that greatly improves design team efficiency for meeting aggressive schedule goals. We are very confident and excited about using Cadence RF technologies in this project.”

The Sequans RF engineering team leveraged the Virtuoso RF Solution to drive robust RF simulation and analyses. Integrating the EMX Planar 3D Solver directly into the Virtuoso Layout Suite EXL environment empowered Sequans engineers to efficiently design and verify critical on-chip and off-chip passive devices and interconnect. The multi-technology capabilities of the Virtuoso RF Solution let integrated circuits, packages and boards be combined and co-designed within a single, unified design platform, thereby significantly reducing EM setup time and effort and allowing designers to meet the growing EM requirements of 5G, IoT and other advanced communication standards. Additionally, the seamless interplay of advanced simulation, multiphysics and RF technologies within the Cadence solution delivers a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive and extensible platform for chip, package and board design through to the end-to-end complete system design, analysis and signoff.

The EMX Planar 3D Solver is part of the broader set of multiphysics system-level solutions offered within the Virtuoso RF Solution. It supports the company’s Intelligent System Design strategy, delivering complete EM signoff for SoC design excellence.