Agilent Technologies Inc. announced shipment of its Genesys 2008.07 release. The new Genesys release contains improvements to the reliability of artwork masks for electromagnetic (EM) verification and RF board manufacturing, along with modeling and user interface improvements. This functionality results in shorter design cycles with fewer iterations for RF designers with tight deadlines and budgets.

The Genesys 2008.07 release reliably exports RF board mask and artwork files to a wider set of board fabricators, inexpensive rapid-prototyping machines and a variety of CAD/CAM software for physical product design. The release also includes a graphical artwork previewer and pre-production editor, allowing designers to inspect masks for layer alignment issues, short circuits or open circuits, and then make direct real-time adjustments with less guesswork. The underlying technology for reliable artwork exchange was adapted from Agilent’s ADS 2008 platform, and is included as a free upgrade to all supported users of Agilent Genesys.

In addition to direct board fabrication, the new artwork tools allow users to import drawings for EM verification using the Momentum GX planar-3D EM simulator. Artwork exchange for Genesys users is improved particularly for the DXF, DWG and Gerber formats.

“We find that many Genesys customers connect to general-purpose board flows, where RF layouts are rolled up into a more mainstream CAD/CAM tool for overall product design,” said Mounir Adada, product marketing manager with Agilent’s EEsof EDA division. “Now, after layout using an external corporate process, it’s practical for the RF artwork to return to Genesys for a final EM verification in Momentum GX. This closed loop helps ensure that designs work the first time.”