AWR

RF / Microwave Design & Analysis

A comprehensive electronic design automation (EDA) platform for developing RF/microwave products

See What The Industry-Leading RF/Microwave Design Platform Can Do For You

Comprehensive RF Design, Analysis & Implementation Environment A powerful and intuitive user interface ensures optimal engineering productivity with smart, customizable design flows for today’s high-frequency semiconductor and PCB technologies.
Unmatched Speed & Accuracy Integrated system, circuit, and EM simulation technologies provide fast and accurate analysis of device performance before prototype manufacturing and test—saving development time and costs.
Automation Built on Experience Design-flow automation connects simulation models, third-party tools, and layout to manufacturing processes, from early concept exploration through engineering signoff.
The AWR Design Environment platform is highly integrated and brings together most aspects needed for RF design. The software has a user friendly interface that enables designers to have full control of the tool.

APPLICATIONS

Solve Your Toughest Design Challenges

Focused on all aspects of RF/Microwave design, AWR Design Environment provides the comprehensive platform you need. No matter the challenge, we have targeted solutions and resources to help you resolve them .

Amplifiers

Address your bandwidth, efficiency, and linearity challenges head-on with advanced harmonic-balance simulation as well as powerful load-pull analysis and impedance-matching circuit synthesis.

Antennas

Design, optimize, and integrate antennas/arrays with certainty using the powerful AWR EM technologies to simulate antenna metrics such as gain, return loss, radiation efficiency, and currents.

Communications

Confidently develop and integrate 5G enabling technologies with the AWR proprietary, phased-array generator, standard-specific 5G signal waveforms, and virtual RF modulated test benches.

Filters

Leverage our integrated planar MoM, 3D FEM, and EM solvers to design complex filter solutions with the low passband insertion loss and the sufficient stopband rejection needed.

Passives

Take advantage of increased power-handling capabilities and drive successful passive component design focused on reducing device footprint, costs, and associated insertion losses.

Radar

Accurately represent signal generation, transmission, phased-arrays, T/R switching, clutter, noise, jamming, and signal processing, to confidently tackle the design challenges for modern radar systems.
SEE FOR YOURSELF

PRODUCTS

Solutions for All Aspects of RF/Microwave Design

Achieve optimal performance and reliable results for first-pass success with easily-managed integrated-circuit (IC), package, and printed-circuit board (PCB) modeling, simulation, and verification.

Microwave Office

Circuit design software that delivers accurate simulation for RF/microwave product development

Leading manufacturers use Microwave Office circuit design software to accelerate product development of high-frequency electronics. The intuitive interface, innovative design automation, and powerful harmonic-balance circuit simulation ensure greater engineering productivity and accelerated design cycles. RF-aware layout, high-frequency models, design automation, and powerful HB simulator ensure greater engineering productivity and speed up design cycles for today’s most challenging applications.

Key Features

  • Schematic/Layout – Synchronous schematic/layout design entry with industry-leading tuning
  • APLAC – Linear and nonlinear harmonic-balance circuit simulation
  • EM Analysis – Fully integrated electromagnetic (EM) with AWR AXIEM and AWR Analyst tools
  • Load-Pull – State-of-the-art load-pull analysis with harmonic and video-band tuning
  • Stability – New fast, rigorous loop circuit envelope analysis for multi-stage and balanced amplifier stability
  • DRC/LVS – Design rule checking/layout vs. schematic

What Our Users Have to Say

Every designer faces a choice during the design cycle: do I believe the simulation results displayed by the software, or not? I trusted the predictions and, thanks to AWR Microwave Office, the new design worked perfectly. The performance we achieved is unlike any other MMIC ever produced.
Christopher Marki – Marki Microwave

Visual System Simulator

System simulation and modeling for wireless communications and radar system design

Visual System Simulator™ (VSS) RF/wireless communications and radar system design software supports VSWR-aware modeling of RF and DSP blocks, providing time-domain, frequency-domain, and circuit-envelope analyses. With VSS, Tx/Rx designers are able to develop and optimize system architectures and determine component specifications for best overall performance. Users can simulate system metrics such as BER and EVM with pre-configured and user-defined virtual test benches, as well as identify the source of spurious products and other system impairments.

What Our Users Have to Say

The unique, open, and integrated environment of VSS enabled us to study the effects of the nonlinear distortion on our communications link margin using real digital modulated analog waveforms.
Christopher Marki – Marki Microwave

Key Features

  • Behavioral Models – Impedance mismatch incorporating the impact of component VSWR on system performance
  • Circuit Envelope – Analysis of digitally-modulated RF circuits including EVM, BER, and adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) simulations
  • Planning/Analysis Tools – Cascaded RF measurements, frequency planner (option), and spurious analysis
  • Co-Simulation – With Microwave Office circuit design software
  • Test Benches – Wireless standards including 5G, LTE, narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT), and more
  • Libraries – Radar and 5G signals and waveforms, inclusive of test benches

Analyst

Finite-element method (FEM) electromagnetic (EM) analysis for 3D structures

Analyst™ 3D FEM EM simulation and analysis simulator accelerates high-frequency product development from early physical design characterization through to full 3D EM verification. The advanced solver technology provides fast and accurate analysis of 3D structures/interconnects found in today’s complex, high-frequency electronics.

What Our Users Have to Say

We chose AWR software because of the proven success of AntSyn and Analyst. The resulting designs worked from the very start and removed the iteration and experimentation usually required in antenna design efforts.
Christopher Marki – Marki Microwave

Key Features

  • EXTRACT – Schematic-driven EM extraction technology/design flow
  • Layout/Drawing Editor – 2D and 3D construction and views
  • Unique FEM Solver – Proprietary, full-wave direct and interative solvers
  • Advanced Meshing Technology – Automatic, adaptive 3D volumetric tetrahedron-based meshing
  • Multiple Sources – Numerous excitations for ports
  • Fast Effective Visualization – 2D- and 3D-field visualization, as well as results post-processing
  • Parametric Studies – Optimization, tuning, and yield analysis
  • High Performance Computing (HPC) Enabled – Multi-core configurations and asynchronous simulation

AXIEM

3D planar electromagnetic (EM) analysis for S-parameter extraction and design verification

AXIEM 3D planar method-of-moments (MoM) EM analysis simulator addresses passive structures, transmission lines, large planar antennas, and patch arrays. AXIEM software delivers the accuracy, capacity, and speed designers need to characterize and optimize passive components on RF PCBs, modules, LTCCs, MMICs, RFICs, and antennas.

What Our Users Have to Say

AWR Microwave Office, AXIEM, and Analyst were pivotal in the analysis of circuit parasitics, tuning towards optimization, and analysis of the effects of environmental disturbance, enabling us to produce an overall more robust product.
Christopher Marki – Marki Microwave
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Key Features

  • Layout/Drawing Editor
  • 2D and 3D views
  • Proprietary method-of-moments (MoM) technology
  • Hybrid Meshing Technology – Automatic adaptive meshing (hybrid rectangular/triangular mesh)
  • Numerous sources and excitations
  • Visualization and results post-processing
  • Parametric Studies – Optimization, tuning, and yield analysis
  • HPC – Multi-core configurations and asynchronous simulation
WHATS NEW

AWR Design Environment v15

Version 15 (V15) offers new and enhanced technologies that provide greater design efficiency and first-pass success to engineering teams developing or integrating III-V ICs, multi-technology modules, and PCB assemblies for 5G, automotive, and aerospace/defense applications. Engineering productivity is improved with new analyses, faster and higher-capacity simulation technologies, time-saving design automation, and 5G New Radio (NR) compliant test benches that support power amplifier and antenna/array design, electromagnetic modeling, and RF/microwave integration across heterogenous technologies.

v15 Highlights

Circuit Design and Simulation

Develop oscillation-free PAs with fast, rigorous stability analysis/optimization Perform rigorous stability analysis for multi-stage amplifiers and transistors connected in parallel with far fewer computations. The faster simulation time makes this new technique suited for optimizing stabilization networks. Reduce IMD with advanced load-pull analysis Minimize intermodulation distortion (IMD) of wideband amplifiers using optimal low-frequency (F1-F2) source/load impedances derived from two-tone load-pull simulations.s. Design-in-place with integrated transmission-line calculator/synthesis Calculate and set transmission line dimensions directly from a schematic for a specified impedance and electrical length from the microstrip, stripline, coplanar or rectangular waveguide, or coaxial components and accelerate the design of distributed networks such as Wilkinson dividers, branchline couplers, and quarter-wave transformers. Synthesize MMIC and PCB matching circuits with PDK/vendor components Address challenging wide- and multi-band PAs and inter-stage impedance matching design using networks synthesized with components from the Microwave Office® vendor library and foundry-authorized process design kits (PDKs).

EM Simulation

Analyze EM structures faster with more intelligent adaptive meshing AXIEM® meshing and solver technology improvements provide faster, more robust EM analysis. Automatically detect and fix problematic mesh facets and address manufacturing details that do not impact electrical behavior. Optimize and plot performance with peak antenna measurements Plot and optimize antenna radiation pattern peaks for E-Phi, E-Theta, E-LHCP, E-RHCP, and total radiate power as a function of swept frequency directly from measurement and optimization dialog boxes.

System Simulation and Models/Libraries

Evaluate designs with preconfigured 5G NR test benches/libraries New test benches accelerate component design and evaluation processes with preconfigured 5G NR TX and RX blocks and measurements. The 5G NR library contains TX/RX functionality for DL/UL modes, supporting FR1 and FR2 frequency bands and test models for DL signal source and receiver configurations. Manage multiplexed signals with phased array MIMO bus support The phased-array model block operating in multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) mode now supports busses on the circuit and radiated sides of the array assembly, offering more comprehensive RF modeling of multiplexed signals. Investigate PA linearization with DPD The new digital predistortion (DPD) block offers algorithms to linearize nonlinear amplifiers. The new DPD model supports memory polynomial, generalized memory polynomial, dynamic deviation reduction of 2nd order (DDR2), and lookup tables.

Design Environment, Layout, and Automation

Integrate diverse technologies with mixed physical units/grid Hierarchical designs now support mixed physical units for chip, package and board subcircuits using different layout process definitions. Minimize physical footprints with DRC compliant iNets routing Place and route intelligent nets (iNets™) as close as possible without violating design rule check (DRC) separation rules using dynamically-calculated, minimum spacing routing guides. Visualize load-pull contours with rectangular plots Plot smith chart or polar plot measurements on a rectangular grid with independent axis control, allowing designers to easily identify impedances associated with peak performance from load-pull contours. Compare different network combinations with template-based measurements A single measurement on a parent document containing subcircuit templates can expand to individual measurements for all permutations, enabling users to quickly set up test benches and compare combinations of networks.

TECHNOLOGIES

Multi-Fabric Implementation to Meet Your  Design Requirements

AWR Design Environment is built to support your RF/Microwave designs across multiple fabrics. From on chip RF structures to full RF board solution we have the technology you need to match your needs.

RF PCB

RF PCBs

Simulation and design flow technologies for high-frequency printed-circuit board (PCB) development

To support increasing functionality, printed-circuit boards (PCBs) use more complex board structures designed for a range of specialized applications. Offering a layout-driven design methodology for complex RF PCBs, AWR software supports accurate modeling of PCB transmission media from the RF signal path to digital control and DC bias lines. Circuit/system and electromagnetic co-simulation provides first-pass design success with complete PCB analysis of surface-mount components, interconnecting transmission lines, and embedded and distributed passive elements, as well as EM verification.

Modules

RF Modules

Simulation and design flow technologies that support multi-chip module product development

RF modules combine multiple integrated circuits (ICs) into a single package, offering a large amount of functionality in a small space. This level of device integration can be an engineering challenge, requiring design teams to model the electrical behavior of many different technologies, including interconnects (transmission lines) and embedded distributed components, as well as RF, analog, and digital components. Electronic design automation (EDA) software is critical for achieving simulation results that are closely matched to the final results.

MMIC

MMICs that Matter

Front-to-back simulation and design flow technologies support MMIC product development

III-V semiconductor devices offer superior RF performance for mobile devices, communications infrastructure, and aerospace applications. Achieving optimal performance requires reliable circuit simulation, EM verification, communication test benches, and a design flow that links electrical design to physical realization. AWR software offers a leading front-to-back monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) design flow with an innovative user interface and complete integration of design entry, simulation, and physical design tools that enhance engineering productivity and ensures first-pass success.

RFIC

RFIC

Simulation and design flow technologies supporting RF integrated circuit (RFIC) intellectual property (IP) development

The demand for wireless connected devices is driving the need for a new generation of high-performance, cost-sensitive silicon products. AWR software provides communications integrated-circuit (IC)​ designers with a platform to develop complete small-scale RFICs or RF front ends for large-scale RFICs from system- to transistor-level design. The software offers native or third-party schematic/layout entry and fully-integrated electromagnetic (EM) extraction for interconnects and on-chip passive components and enables co-simulation with frequency-domain harmonic balance (HB) and transient time-domain circuit analysis.

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