Evaluation Engineering - 15

regard to the LTM8078, he said, "It is one
of the lowest-noise switching regulators
in the industry. Previously, a designer
never would consider powering a VCO
or amplifier with a switching regulator.
The LTM8078 is the latest in the line of
silent switchers that are game changers
for applications where greatly improved
power efficiency and/or large regulated
voltage drops are required."

Simulation and modeling
Ansys offers modeling and simulation
solutions to design RF/microwave and
wireless communications devices for
a broad range of industries, according
to Manohar Raju, their senior product
specialist at Ansys. "These solutions are
used to compress the number of tests and
design cycles," he added.
The company recently introduced key
solutions in RF/microwave and wireless
communications. "We are the first to offer a novel solution to model antenna arrays used in diverse applications," Raju
said. "Significant increase in speed and
accuracy as well as decreased memory
requirements are the key benefits of this
solution in Ansys HFSSAnsys HFSS."
He continued, "A new product in our
portfolio, the Ansys RaptorH employs
HFSS to extract S-parameters and parasitics for RFICs with unprecedented
speed and accuracy." He explained that
S-parameter data is fed to circuit simulators to predict the signal integrity of
these components. "Similarly, SI issues
for large and dense PCBs and packages
are analyzed by hybrid solutions of HFSS
and SIwave to take advantage of their best
attributes and yield S-parameter data of
superior accuracy," he added.
Further, Raju said, "Designers of RF
components and systems must ensure
that their devices do not cause unintended emissions, radiations, or overstep
regulatory standards. In-built EMI/EMC
3D components of Ansys HFSS and uniform simulation workflows help achieve
compliance faster and economically for
electromagnetic impulse (EMP), conducted emissions CISPR25 and CISPR2,
and other standards."
Remcom offers tools including XFdtd
electromagnetic simulation software,

WaveFarer automotive radar simulation
software, and Wireless InSite 3D wireless
prediction software, according to Stefanie
Lucas, director of marketing. The products support R&D and simulated testing,
across a variety of verticals, including 5G,
Wi-Fi, automotive radar, IoT, indoor consumer electronics (smart speakers, laptops), mobile device design, and wireless
network planning, she said.
XFdtd includes full-wave, static, biothermal, optimization, and circuit solvers,
and can simulate electrostatic discharge
(ESD) testing, enabling engineers to identify potential locations of dielectric breakdown and components at risk of damage.
The automotive version of WaveFarer
supports drive scenario modeling at frequencies beyond 79 GHz, and Wireless
InSite supports the analysis and design of
wireless systems for communication, networking, sensors, and other applications
in urban, indoor, or rural environments.
MathWorks offers a range of tools
for wireless and radar system design.
"These tools are built on our platform
products, MATLAB and Simulink," said
Rick Gentile, product manager, RF and
signal-processing systems. "The tools
cover RF, antenna, and phased-array
design and analysis. They also cover the
signal-processing and data-processing
system components."
Gentile said modeling building blocks,
algorithms, and system simulators are
available for standards-based wireless systems including 5G NR systems.
"We also support broad workflows for
multifunction radar design," he added.
"System developers use our tools to ensure architectures and designs will work
at the earliest point in the project life cycle. The unique aspect is that MATLAB
and Simulink as platforms span such a
broad range of disciplines and a broad
range of workflows (requirements analysis through deployment on hardware).
This enables a development environment
that eases system-level integration across
diverse teams at the very earliest stages
of a project." Building on that foundation,
MathWorks' most recent solutions are
available in the company's R2020a release,
which became available for download in
March.

Gentile cited a challenge that faces
test vendors and customers across the
RF/microwave arena. "We see the rise
in system complexity as the main challenge," he said. "This complexity is driven
by many external factors such as the need
for higher bandwidth, lower power systems. The RF spectrum is crowded, and
the chance for interference is greater
than ever. Systems that previously were
focused on a few key functions now need
to perform a more diverse set of tasks.
Today's systems also get deployed in ways
that were never possible in the past."
Gentile noted further that system development teams may be smaller today
than in the past and are likely to be spread
out across the world. "All of the challenges
described above add risk," he said. "Our
goal is to make it easy for system developers and integrators to model and simulate their systems before they build them.
Finding issues early in a project greatly
reduces the cost in fixing these issues. We
want to help reduce risk. We also want
to help system developers leverage all of
their modeling work by making it easy to
deploy code directly from models. System
reliability is critical, so we work to make
it easy to verify designs directly from the
modeling results as well."

Markets and challenges
EE asked contributors to this report to
elaborate key features of their offerings
and to comment on the markets they
serve, and challenges facing the industry. Read on to see what they had to say.

What are other key features
of your solutions you would
like to emphasize?
Moudgal and Himmler, dSPACE:
"Characteristics that describe DARTS devices include ultra-compact, lightweight,
low-power-consuming, RUT-modulationscheme-agnostic, and quick-changeover
between K-band and E-band applications.
Industry-leading performance makes
DARTS a very versatile instrument for
a wide range of applications, from radar
chip design and calibration to end-of-line
testing at Tier 1s and OEMs, to function
validation in the lab, and to aftermarket
applications."
JULY 2020 EVALUATIONENGINEERING.COM

http://www.EVALUATIONENGINEERING.COM

Evaluation Engineering

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