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Pushing productivity
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07/04/2008
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In a move aimed at improving design productivity in devices with rf circuits implemented on pcbs, Mentor Graphics and Agilent Technologies have announced a jointly developed solution that is expected to halve pcb design cycle times and improve mixed technology design quality.
The solution enables mixed signal pcb designers to concurrently design a pcb using Mentor’s Expedition Enterprise or Board Station XE flows and to integrate with Agilent’s Advanced Design System (ADS) eda software for rf design and simulation.
John Isaac, director of market development within Mentor’s systems design division, pictured, noted: “Technology is changing. It used to be single layer pcbs; now, it’s more complex and complicated further by global design teams. We’ve streamlined the process to avoid manual errors.”
He gave the example of a board within an Agilent spectrum analyser. “It’s a complex multilayer board with several areas of rf, digital and analogue circuitry.”
According to Agilent, it spends three or more months in an eight month development cycle writing custom code to move rf layouts from ADS to Mentor. Tom Gray, spectrum analyser project engineer with Agilent, said: “Linking ADS with Expedition could cut development time by as much as half and provide significant cost savings.”
How Siang Yap, Agilent ADS product manager, noted: “A lot of people want to develop smaller products with rf functionality. The more you do that, the more simulation is required. If you don’t resimulate, then it’s a lot of board turns.”
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Author
Graham Pitcher
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