PCB design suite gains signal integrity analysis

Cadstar SI Verify uses a transmission line simulation approach to analyse reflection and crosstalk effects and also facilitates real interconnect timing and delay analysis.

PCB designers faced with increasing clock speeds, faster switching devices and increasingly dense layouts need effective post-layout simulation and verification if unnecessary design iterations are to be avoided - design "rules of thumb" are no longer accurate enough.

Cadstar SI Verify, a new tool within Zuken's Cadstar PCB design suite, provides these capabilities at up to gigabit per second speeds.

The tool uses a transmission line simulation approach to analyse reflection and crosstalk effects and also facilitates real interconnect timing and delay analysis.

It incorporates a graphical scenario editor, layer stack definition for optimisation of impedances and layers, an EMC device library, and the option to perform interactive simulation or batch simulation.

Cadstar SI Verify enables fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis in time or frequency domains and provides sophisticated crosstalk analysis and optimisation of track spacing.

It also provides for simulation of differential pairs or positive-referenced emitter-coupled logic (PECL) and a parameter sweep helps determine the ideal values of passive components or transmission line lengths to achieve the desired electrical performance of nets.

The tool is fully integrated into the Cadstar design flow and engineers need not be signal integrity experts to be able use it.

Ralf Bruning, Product Manager at the Zuken EMC Technology Centre commented: "Design techniques such as using lower frequency components and avoiding those with fast edge rates may be neither appropriate nor sufficient today; and lengthy design iterations are no longer an option for many companies.

As board complexity increases, Cadstar SI Verify, with its new simulation engines for time domain and frequency domain transmission line simulation can help our customers to stay competitive.

Also, support for gigabit design, with features like lossy transmission line simulation, enables them to employ leading-edge design processes that take account of physical and electrical design performance simultaneously.

This drives down time to market and maximises both product quality and yield".

Cadstar is an integrated, PC-based PCB design suite that includes hierarchical schematic capture, PCB layout, single operation post-processing for manufacturing, library creation, and automatic and interactive routing.

It is used for single-sided, double-sided, multilayer, and surface mount board design.

Back to top