Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Ansoft Europe | Subject: Nexxim
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 23 February 2004
Simulator makes sense of RF signal
integrity
Nexxim is a novel product targeting the next generation of analogue/mixed-signal applications, including high-performance RFCMOS, GaAs/SiGe RF ICs and gigabit computer and communication backplanes.
Nexxim is a novel product targeting the next generation of analogue/mixed-signal applications, including high-performance RFCMOS, GaAs/SiGe RF ICs and gigabit computer and communication backplanes "Nexxim expands our product portfolio for circuit design and, combined with Ansoft Designer, increases Ansoft's addressable market threefold", said Nicholas Csendes, Ansoft's President and Chief Executive Officer
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 26 Mar 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Design software gains solvers on demand
Ansoft Designer v2.0 expands the company's Solver on Demand technology to include Nexxim, for RF/mixed-signal circuit simulation, and Q3D Extractor, for 3D quasi-static parasitic extraction.
Magazine praises RF design software
Microwaves and RF magazine has recognised Nexxim as one of its top products of 2004.
"The launch of Nexxim within a year of shipping Designer solidifies Ansoft's expansion from a successful electromagnetic tool vendor to a leading circuit design solutions provider".
Customer benchmarks solved to date include a 1.8GHz PLL (phase-locked loop) in 0.25 micron CMOS with over 2000 BSIM3 transistors, a complete RF/analogue front-end for a Bluetooth BiCMOS SoC with over 4000 active devices, a memory cell with over 13,000 BSIM3 transistors, an RF mixer analysed with more than 1000 harmonics, and a 3Gsample/s ADC in 0.35 micron GaAs.
Each benchmark has driven product development and has proven the added value of Nexxim over competing circuit simulation tools.
Further reading
Simulator gains Murata library
Users of Ansoft's Nexxim can now use a new device library based on Murata's discrete capacitor/coil inductor products.
Device library adds Panasonic SMT devices
Panasonic and Ansoft have released a new device library for Nexxim and Ansoft Designer based on Panasonic's high-density miniaturised surface-mount (SMT) components.
Simulator gains TDK component library
TDK and Ansoft Corp have released a new library for TDK's capacitor, inductor, common mode filter, and ferrite bead components for use in Nexxim and Ansoft Designer.
Dr Mark Reichelt, Director of Nexxim R and D, said: "Leading researchers with a proven track record of creating circuit simulation software came together at Ansoft to develop sophisticated new algorithms and numerical techniques for Nexxim.
I believe that Nexxim technology represents the next state of the art in circuit simulation in terms of accuracy, robustness, capacity and speed".
With a multitude of algorithmic innovations in transient and harmonic-balance analyses, Nexxim achieves unprecedented robust convergence and simulation speeds while improving accuracy and dynamic range.
Nexxim addresses a major industry concern by running frequency- and time-domain analyses using the same circuit netlist and the same library models, thus guaranteeing consistent results from the two different domains.
Designers of high-performance ICs and PCBs will no longer have to spend countless hours reconciling results from two different simulators each running from different netlists and different versions of device models.
Nexxim's integration with Ansoft Designer supports cosimulation with system and planar EM solvers.
Combined with HFSS, Ansoft's full-wave 3D electromagnetic solver, and Q3D Extractor, Ansoft's quasistatic parasitic extractor, the toolset represents the most complete RF/AMS circuit design solution commercially available.
Nexxim advantages include: time- and frequency-domain circuit simulation with consistent results across both analysis domains; simulation accuracy and transistor-level detail without the use of model approximations; unmatched capacity and speed gains to handle the high nonlinearities and large device counts characteristic of today's RF/mixed-signal IC designs; robust convergence for DC, transient and multitone harmonic balance problems with large transistor counts; dynamic parameterised link to HFSS and Q3D Extractor; cosimulation with Ansoft Designer's Solver on Demand planar EM and system simulators; active and passive device model compatibility with industry standards, such as Hspice; and support for numerous frequency-dependent models, including S-parameters, W-elements and distributed transmission-line models.
Ansoft will release Nexxim in the second quarter of calendar year 2004.
The product will first ship on PCs running Windows 2000 and XP followed by Sun Solaris and Linux.
In the USA, the product's list price starts at $79,900 for a perpetual licence.
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