Microwave Engineering Europe - March 2008 - (Page 30)

30 EDA — CIRCUIT EXTRACTION Figure 11: Comparison of ACE extraction against a EMSight 3D Planar MoM EM solver. EM Socket™ tool. This includes AXIEM™, AWR’s recently-introduced 3D planar MoM EM solver that works on conformal adaptive mesh algorithms. Figure 11 shows a simple interconnect from Example 1 of this paper with results from ACE and EMSight™. Conclusion Circuit design in recent years has become overly reliant on EM analysis because microwave/RF design tools have not kept pace with the challenges of next-generation communications design. The new ACE software brings to the RF/microwave world the ability to model complex interconnects quickly and accurately, and, most importantly, to perform accurate and timely simulation and analysis early in the design cycle, before time-consuming design re-spins and costly hardware adjustments are necessary. The speed, accuracy, and parametric nature of ACE™ software enable engineers to return to real design by exploring design alternatives and changes in seconds. Obviously, EM veriﬁcation is still a necessary part of the ﬂow, but the ACE tool enables engineers to design once again rather than analyze after the fact, even on many of the most challenging RF and MW designs. The features and beneﬁts of the groundbreaking new ACE automated circuit extraction technology have been showcased in this paper and examples of ways in which users can employ this technology to streamline and optimize their design ﬂows have been presented. ACE has been shown here to provide comparable accuracy at 100x to 1000x speed improvement over generalized EM solvers when used during design and analysis. Designers using ACE software can be conﬁdent that this new technology will enable them to develop products more quickly and conﬁdently, helping them take advantage of ever-smaller market windows. Company Information AWR www.awrcorp.com NEWS BRIEFS Elonics raises £2 million in ﬁrst VC round RF CMOS IC developer Elonics (Livingston, Scotland) has raised £2 million in venture funding in an initial round led by technology commercialization and investment management company Braveheart. Other investors included the Scottish Venture Fund and private investors Sir Tom Farmer and Brian Souter. Elonics was founded in 2003 and has developed a ﬂexible radio tuner chip technology platform that can be conﬁgured to support different standards and frequencies for a number of applications. The ‘DigitalTune’ technology will initially be used to develop the E4000 chip, a ﬂexible TV tuner for portable and handheld devices such as smart phones and laptops. The E4000 is undergoing prototype development and evaluation and the funding is designed to provide working capital to enable Elonics to complete the development of the product and take it to market by the third quarter of 2008. www.mwee.com/206503698 Alcatel Lucent, LG Electronics cooperate on LTE At the recent Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Alcatel-Lucent and LG Electronics have announced a strategic alliance to develop and market products based on LTE technology. The companies have agreed to collaborate on R&D activities as well as on interoperability tests. In addition, the companies will align their standardization efforts within the scope of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and support customer test installations. With bundling of their forces they intend to strengthen the momentum of the LTE technology and motivate third parties to develop infrastructure, terminal devices and applications, the companies said in a press release. At the congress in Barcelona, the companies demonstrated video transmissions based on LTE technology. Using Alcatel-Lucent’s infrastructure and prototypes of LG Electroncis’ mobile terminals, the companies succeeded in the transmission of several dozens of video streams in parallel into one RF cell. www.mwee.com/206503697 Axis Network raises £3 m in VC funding Axis Network Technology, a specialist developer of re-conﬁgurable digital radio platforms, has received £3 million in investment from Bessemer Venture Partners. Axis (Aylesbury, England) already has a range of 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz digital radios and modules in production, and is focusing on emerging platforms for WiMAX, 3G (WCDMA and TD-SCDMA) and 4G (3GPP-LTE). The acquisition of Ezurio aims to enhance Laird Technologies’ position in the supply of customized wireless communications systems for customers who want their products to communicate wirelessly but do not have an internal wireless development group. Axis provides radio systems direct to OEMs using its experience in RF technology, digital and baseband design, together with an established logistics chain that includes circuit manufacture via global EMS and strategic device technology partnerships. www.mwee.com/206503740 Microwave Engineering Europe ● March 2008 ● www.mwee.com 024_025-026-028-029_030_MWEE.ind30 30 21/02/08 11:09:42 http://www.awrcorp.com http://www.mwee.com/206503740 http://www.mwee.com/206503697 http://www.mwee.com/206503698 http://www.mwee.com

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Microwave Engineering Europe - March 2008 News Contents Comment Wireless Infrastructure: A Direct Conversion I/Q Demodulatordrives Favorable Basestation Cost-performance Metrics Wireless Infrastructure: Mobile World Set to Reshape the Internet RF Amplifiers: Latest Advances in RF Amplifiers Include a CMOS PA Operating at 77 GHz and Significant Advances in PAs for WiMAX and Broadband Applications Many Applications Still Require Unique Performance Benefits of BeO ACE Automated Circuit Extraction Returns to Real Design by Exploring Design Alternatives and Changes in Seconds Exceeding the Standard for Wireless Sensor Networks Products Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - March 2008

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