Applied Wave Research Inc. (AWR®), a provider of high frequency electronic design automation (EDA) tools, announced the 2007 versions of its flagship high frequency software, the Microwave Office® design suite and its unique system simulation software, Visual System Simulator™ (VSS).


These latest releases provide unique and innovative new software capabilities that help designers deliver next-generation communications products with a higher degree of confidence in less design cycle time.

“The new technologies AWR is delivering with Microwave Office 2007 and VSS 2007 software are the result of utilizing our microwave expertise to migrate the benefits of digital/analog circuit extraction technology into useful software for high frequency design,” said Dane Collins, CEO at AWR.

“Our company has a rich and long-standing tradition of leveraging its considerable experience in microwave design in order to provide pioneering EDA solutions that dramatically improve design productivity and reduce product development costs for communications applications.”

New in Microwave Office software is an industry-first circuit extraction technology developed specifically to deliver productivity benefits to designers of today’s complex, next-generation communications products.

ACE™ automated circuit extraction dramatically reduces from hours to seconds the time required to do the initial modeling of complex interconnects because users are able to leverage layout-based models for circuit extraction.

This innovative approach to circuit extraction enables designers to perform interconnect modeling quickly and accurately at the earliest stages of the design flow, where problems can be identified and corrected before costly and time-consuming redesigns are required. These benefits ensure that products will be volume manufacturable, cost-effective and achieve their market window of opportunity.

VSS 2007 software now includes RFA™ technology, an advanced system-level radio–frequency (RF) architectural planning and specification tool for RF communication system engineers who need to quickly create and verify the initial specifications of a radio design before committing to hardware and/or a particular circuit design.

RFA offers a new simulation tool, RF Inspector™, which helps designers find potential pitfalls early in the design process, at the system-level design phase, thus saving significant design cycle time and costly respins. Users can identify sources of intermodulation products and undesired spurs of an RF link, including the effects of conversions, harmonics and noise.

This enables users to isolate the sources of unwanted interferers and to better architect their RF systems. It is designed to support both tone and modulated signals, and it is integrated seamlessly into Microwave Office 2007 design suite.

Features in Microwave Office 2007 software now include:

• ACE automated circuit extraction of circuit models from layout geometries using RF/microwave models and techniques

• Enhanced integration with the APLAC® harmonic balance simulation engines, providing industry-leading speed and accuracy

• Integration with the VSS RF Inspector™ tool, enabling frequency-domain simulation from within the Microwave Office environment

• Expanded Intelligent Net™ (iNet) technology now includes monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), module and printed circuit board (PCB) design capability

• Improved EM stackup editor and layout mapping

• New layout features and simulation models

• Expanded design rule checking (DRC) coverage and support

• AC and noise analysis with HSPICE

New features of VSS 2007 design suite include:

• RFA system-level RF architectural planning tool, including RF Inspector system simulation WiMAX mobile library, fully compliant with IEEE 802.16e-2005 specifications, WirelessMAN-OFDMA physical layer

• WiMAX fixed library (802.16d-2004) receiver

• RF centric measurements such as integrated phase noise and carrier-to-interference noise ratio (CINR)

• Additional RF models and enhanced existing RF models

For additional information about Microwave Office design suite and VSS, please visit AWR on the web at
www.appwave.com.

Pricing and Availability

General availability of Microwave Office 2007 design suite and VSS is scheduled for Q3 2007. A controlled customer release or beta version is available immediately for select customers with support contracts. The product supports Windows 2000, XP and Linux. US list prices for yearly, time-based licenses range from $5000 - $40,000 depending upon configurations. For more information on product pricing and availability, contact AWR at info@appwave.com or 310-726-3000. For product pricing and availability outside the US, please contact AWR or AWR’s local sales representative.