Keysight EDA Electronic Design Automation Software
Keysight EDA Electronic Design Automation Software
Introduction
Keysight EDA software is a comprehensive suite of design and simulation tools for the development of
high-frequency analog and high-speed digital products to meet current and future requirements such as
5G, 6G, automotive radars, high data rate wired/wireless channels for AI machine learning in
commercial/military applications and quantum electronics.
Keysight EDA is the leading high-frequency (up to 300GHz sub-terahertz) and high-speed digital physical
layer design tool used by circuit and system designers to develop components for the RF-microwave
(RFMW), high-speed digital (HSD), electronic system level (ESL), power electronics (PE) and quantum
electronics (QE) industries. These powerful capabilities are proven in Keysight’s state-of-the-art, high-
performance instruments that serve these industries because the cutting-edge components inside are
designed with Keysight EDA tools. Keysight EDA also enables you to develop superior products to meet
tight competitive market windows.
Table of Contents
Advanced Design System (ADS) EDA Platform for Multi-Technology Simulation ....................................... 3
Configuration ................................................................................................................................................. 4
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................... 18
2
Advanced Design System (ADS)
EDA Platform for Multi-Technology Simulation
Keysight ADS is the premier EDA platform for the design of high-frequency and high-speed digital
physical layer components from single purpose amplifiers to complex RF modules and high-speed digital
boards. The ADS platform forms the basis for RF/microwave, Signal/Power Integrity, Power electronics
and Quantum electronics design software bundles that contain the powerful capabilities to accomplish
challenging design tasks for these applications.
The ADS EDA platform is chosen by leading companies after careful evaluation of its unique capabilities
not found in other design tools:
Figure 1. ADS multi-technology simulation platform is customizable with Python to smoothly integrate into your
design flow and provides easy access to the most accurate RF and high-speed simulation in the industry for single
pass design success.
3
Configuration
Advanced Design System (ADS)
https://www.keysight.com/find/ads
https://www.keysight.com/find/ads-config
4
RF and Microwave Design
ADS is the trusted design and simulation tool used by 70% of the world’s RF and Microwave component
designers according to a recent Pedestal Research EDA industry report.
This is because it is uniquely able to easily integrate 3D mixed technologies, such as RFICs, chip
packaging, boards, interconnects, antennas, and input/output connectors to accurately represent and
simulate what will eventually be built. This is also known as 3D Heterogeneous Integration (3DHI).
These are the unique capabilities offered by ADS for RF and Microwave component design:
5
High Speed Digital Design
ADS high-frequency simulation expertise is also ideally suited for High-Speed Digital design of
components and circuit boards for high datarate multi-gigabit applications such as High Performance
Computing (HPC), data center servers, memory systems, chiplets, and AI/ML systems in robotics and
autonomous vehicles. Libraries of industry digital standards enables convenient compliance verification.
• Signal Integrity (SI) for simulating digital data channels, such as PCB traces and interconnects, for
eye-diagram opening margin requirements in both pre-layout exploration and post-layout verification.
It includes channel simulation for pulsed amplitude modulation (PAM-4/3/N) high data rate signaling
and rapid scanning of trace impedance to avoid SI issues in HSD boards.
• Power Integrity (PI) for verifying and optimizing power delivery network in HSD systems to ensure stable,
noise free voltages and currents are delivered to ICs on PCBs to maintain reliable operations. PI issues
such as voltage droops, noise and signal distortions are simulated to avoid wasteful hardware iterations.
• Memory design in modules or memory systems on server boards to ensure compliance with industry
standards such as DDR, GDDR and multi-level modulation PAM-N and NRZ signaling. Pre- and
post-layout analysis of memory bus channels ensures reliable memory hardware downstream.
• Chiplet design for integrating modular specific function ICs, called chiplets, in a package to deliver
multi-function System-on-Chip (SoC) with higher yields and cost savings up to 50% compared to
custom SoC chips. Communication between chiplets, called die-to-die (D2D) UCIe, is simulated to
ensure chiplet interconnects are reliable and interoperable.
• PCIe design for high data rate multi-lane communication channels in high performance computing
(HPC), datacenter infrastructure, AI/ML system, automotive, mobile and desktop computing
applications. Analyze PCIe performance and address issues before build-out to avoid iterations.
Recommended ADS Bundles for High-Speed Digital (HSD) Design
ADS Core, EM Design, Layout, HSD Ckt Sim, SIPro W3624B
ADS Core, EM Design, Layout, HSD Ckt Sim, SIPro, PIPro W3625B
ADS Core, EM Design, HSD Ckt Sim, Memory Designer W3622B
Chiplet PHY Designer Bundle W3650B
PCIe Designer Bundle W3651B
Learn more: https://www.keysight.com/find/whats-new-in-high-speed-digital
6
Power Electronics Design
Designing compact, high power density and reliable Switched Mode Power Supply (SMPS) requires high
switching speed, suppression of electromagnetic interference (EMI) emissions and thermal reliability.
Accurate models required for SMPS design and simulation, such as Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors, can
be created with Python based AI/ML automated training from published datasheet information.
ADS offers the following unique capabilities for Power Electronics (PE) design:
7
Quantum Chip Design
Keysight EDA offers the first integrated design flow for superconducting qubit design to enable faster
development of quantum chips with five unique capabilities in one platform:
• Quantum Layout: Library of commonly used quantum artwork -- fully parametrized for convenient
optimization and quantum circuit buildup.
• Electromagnetic: Full EM solution in both frequency domain and eigenmode (with kinetic
inductance) for quantum parameter analysis
• Quantum Parameters Extraction: Automatic extraction using the three standard methods, Blackbox
Quantization, Energy Participation Ratio (EPR), and Quasi-Static.
• Nonlinear Circuit Simulation: Market-leading harmonic balance nonlinear circuit simulation with
superior convergence for complex quantum amplifier design with 1000s of Josephson junctions.
• EM-Nonlinear Circuit Co-Sim: Ability to inspect the power dependence response of the quantum
chip by combined EM and nonlinear circuit co-simulation.
8
Electromagnetic (EM) Design (EMPro)
Keysight EMPro is a dedicated 3D modeling and electromagnetic (3DEM) simulation environment for 3D
components in electronic designs. It can also analyze radar cross sections of vehicles and aircrafts, and
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of the human head and body from smartphone EM radiation.
• 3D modeling environment to draw or import CAD files of complex 3D shapes such as packaging,
antennas, connectors, vehicles, and the human body. Material properties and ports are then defined
for running 3DEM simulation.
• Finite Element Method (FEM) simulator for electrically small structures such as packages, shields,
and connectors to determine S-parameters, EM fields and cavity resonant frequencies.
• Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulator for electrically large structures such as vehicles,
aircraft, and the human body to determine radar cross sections and biological EM field absorption.
• Output includes S-parameters, surface currents, EM fields, antenna patterns, and cavity resonant
frequencies.
• Simulate smartphone antenna radiation with human body model for compliance with Hearing Aid
Compatibility (HAC) and Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) standards.
• Export 3D components to ADS for Circuit-EM cosimulation to thoroughly analyze the interaction of
active and passive components before building hardware to eliminate iterations.
9
RF Circuit Synthesis (Genesys)
Keysight Genesys is an affordable and easy-to-use RF circuit and system design too. It offers 13 types of
automatic RF circuit synthesis, such as filters and impedance matching networks, for RF engineers to
quickly get a starting sub-circuit design for integrating into a bigger design. It also includes circuit, system,
and EM simulators for designing single-technology RF boards.
• Affordable, Accurate, Easy-to-Use RF circuit synthesis, Circuit, EM, System simulation integrated
design tool.
• Widest coverage of 13 RF circuit synthesis categories in the industry. Ideal as personal RF toolbox
for designing sub-circuits as part of a bigger design.
• Filter synthesis – passive, active, distributed, hybrid lumped-distributed, custom response direct synthesis.
• Impedance matching networks for measured complex, frequency dependent impedance (antennas)
and multi-stage complex impedance broadband matching.
• Mixers, Oscillators, Transmission lines, transitions, signal control splitters, combiners, attenuators.
• RF System line up cascaded block budget analysis with root cause detective to pinpoint culprit block
causing system degradation.
• RF System design for modulated RF signals with fast Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) analysis to
select the optimal component line-up to meet system EVM specs.
• System Sys-Parameters modeling of published datasheet nonlinear amplifiers and passive components.
• Momentum 3D Planar EM simulator for microstrip and arbitrary planar layout.
10
System Design (SystemVue)
Keysight SystemVue is an Electronic System Level (ESL) simulation platform for designing and verifying
communication, defense/aerospace systems at the physical layer (PHY) where Digital Signal Processing
(DSP) meets RF. SystemVue brings together baseband DSP algorithm modeling, accurate RF, trusted
reference IP (such as 5G, WiFi, and radars), and measurement automation in a single environment for
optimal baseband DSP and RF co-design to eliminate wasteful iterations.
• Electronic System Level (ESL) design environment with integrated baseband DSP and RF simulators
for designing physical layer (PHY) of communications and aerospace-defense systems.
• Industry first Phased Array Antenna system design with integrated RF system budget, antenna
element-array configuration, and beamforming DSP algorithm co-simulation.
• Real-world libraries for Radar, EW, satellite, phased array, 5G NR-NTN, Wi-Fi, and automotive.
• Integration with ADS, Python, MATLAB and STK for complex, scenario-based ESL designs.
• Seamless AI ML integration for AI model import and training data generation for 6G and others.
11
RFIC Design (RFPro Circuit and GoldenGate)
RFPro Circuit is a next-generation simulation suite for robust RFIC circuit design. GoldenGate is a
comprehensive RFIC Design and Verification solution. They seamlessly integrate within Cadence
Virtuoso and Synopsys Custom Compiler design environments.
• Best in class RFIC circuit simulators in Cadence Virtuoso and Synopsys Design Compiler, offering
Frequency, Time, and Envelope domain simulation for the most thorough characterization of
complete RFIC transceivers before tape out.
• Optimization for performance with sweeps and load-pull analysis.
• Wireless Standards Libraries verify RFIC performance in target system applications (e.g., 5G/6G,
WiFi, radars) before tapeout and to achieve early design wins with clients.
• Modulated Signal Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) performance assessment for the latest communication
standards early in the design phase with fast EVM algorithms leveraged from Keysight instrumentation.
• Layout EM effects on RFIC performance from 3D IC layout, packaging, interconnects, transitions,
and PCB evaluation boards are accounted for during design.
• Risk Reduction with thorough Circuit and Statistical verification toolkits eliminate costly re-spins and
low yields.
• Worldwide Foundry Process Design Kit (PDK) support offers a wide choice of RFIC foundry process
to tape out to.
12
Thermal Design for IC (ADS ETH and Heatwave)
ADS Electrothermal (ETH) simulation suite integrates with ADS transient, steady-state, and envelope
circuit simulators to account for layout dependent localized ETH heating from active devices during
operation. ETH heating effects alter device characteristics, degrade circuit performance, and reduce
reliability. Heatwave is an IC ETH simulator for chips and stacked-die System-in-Package (SIP) designs
and works with non-Keysight circuit simulators such as Cadence Spectre and Synopsys HSPICE.
• Most accurate Electrothermal (ETH) simulator and can resolve fine temperature variations on ICs
across device spacing and between layers.
• Predicts reliability, electrical performance degradation from self-heating in amplifiers, packaged RF
modules, and full chip operation.
• Steady state, transient and circuit envelope electrothermal simulation with HPC acceleration.
• Improves accuracy of circuit simulation by accounting for layout dependent ETH heating effects
during operation in actual deployment conditions.
13
Device Modeling (ICCAP, MBP, MQA, WaferPro)
The accuracy of circuit simulation depends on the availability of accurate mathematical models to
represent the active and passive devices in the circuit. Device modeling tools enable these models to be
created by measuring the electrical characteristics of the devices; followed by mathematically adjusting
the parameters in the model equations, until the simulated characteristics matches the measured data.
These tools are typically used by semiconductor foundries to create a library of accurate models in their
Process Design Kit (PDK) for use by their customers to design ICs with.
• IC-CAP (Integrated Circuit Characterization and Analysis Program) for modeling semiconductor
devices built with Silicon CMOS, Bipolar, Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Gallium Nitride (GaN), and other
compound III-V foundry processes.
• MBP (Model Builder Program) for creating Silicon device models such as BSIM-BULK, BSIM-CMG,
BSIM-IMG, UTSOI and others for logic, analog, and RF design applications. It features automated
model extraction flow for high volume silicon device model extractions.
• MQA (Model Quality Assurance) automates device model validation by comparing the results from
simulating the same model with multiple industry standard SPICE simulators. It reports model issues
so that they can be corrected by the foundry before releasing it in their PDK.
• WaferPro performs automated wafer-level probing, measurements, and high-volume data analysis
to validate that wafer electrical characteristics are uniform across the entire wafer and across
batches of wafers. This wafer-level testing is critical for semiconductor yield monitoring.
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Recommended Device Modeling Bundles
IC-CAP Device modeling platform bundle software license Plus W7300B
MBP Model Builder Program core software license Plus W6300B
MQA Model Quality Assurance core software license Plus W6800B
WaferPro Express A-LFNA Measurement and Programming Bundle software license W7802B
Advanced Low Frequency Noise Analyzer (A-LFNA) W4727B
Device Modeling (IC-CAP) https://www.keysight.com/find/device-modeling
Configuration https://www.keysight.com/find/device-modeling-config
Model Builder (MBP) https://www.keysight.com/find/model-builder
Configuration https://www.keysight.com/find/model-builder-config
Model QA (MQA) https://www.keysight.com/find/model-qa
Configuration https://www.keysight.com/find/model-qa-config
WaferPro (WaferPro Express) https://www.keysight.com/find/waferpro
Configuration https://www.keysight.com/find/waferpro-config
Learn more about Device Modeling https://www.keysight.com/find/whats-new-in-device-modeling
Learn more about Device Modeling Service Global Device Modeling Services | Keysight
Contact Keysight about Device Modeling Service [email protected]
15
Design Data IP Management
(Cliosoft SOS and HUB)
Design Data represents valuable time and resources invested by companies to create Intellectual
Properties (IP) portfolios that can be monetized. The security and management of your Design Data and
IP are critical to avoid costly unplanned business disruptions from data loss, salvage, and repair. Efficient
IP management eliminates design resource inefficiency through systematic cataloging and retrieval of IPs
for reuse and licensing, resulting in improved financial metrics.
• Keysight Design Data Management (SOS) optimizes design data archival with robust security and
preservation of design integrity for global, dispersed team to collaborate with reliable retrieval and
version control.
• Keysight IP Management (HUB) is ISO26262 certified for efficient IP cataloging, selection, reuse,
publication and tracking across multiple sites and teams to streamline individual and collaborative
design processes for optimal deployment of design resources.
16
High Performance Computing (HPC)
High Performance Computing (HPC) enables simulation to be performed significantly faster with up to
80%-time savings by using parallel simulations and powerful cloud compute resources. Keysight EDA
offers HPC license for accelerating circuit, EM, and system simulation. The number of HPC licenses can
be scaled up to increase parallelism for attaining the achievable time savings.
• eLearning: Web-based courses available 24x7 to enable learning at your own pace from any location
to quickly acquire expertise in using Keysight solutions.
• Instructor-Led Training: Delivered on-site or through remote access for diverse teams to quickly
deploy Keysight EDA solutions. Typical duration is two or more days with up to ten students.
• Custom Solutions: Keysight experts provide customized training, consulting, or measurement service
for you to achieve optimal business results in the shortest time by providing expert industry proven
knowledge to fast track the learning curve and deployment into your enterprise workflow.
o One example is Keysight device modeling service where your device measurements are
performed on Keysight instruments in sophisticated labs and Keysight device modeling experts fit
the measured data to your requested device models.
17
Recommended Keysight EDA services:
eLearning 24/7 online access for up to 50 users N3240F
Remote dedicated training by Keysight Experts online N3249R
Custom Solution Service R5000A
Learn more about Device Modeling Service Global Device Modeling Services | Keysight
Contact Keysight about the above services [email protected]
Conclusion
This Keysight Electronic Design Automation (EDA) technical overview introduces the distinct categories of
EDA solutions needed to accurately design physical hardware and components in today’s high frequency
and high data bandwidth applications such as 5G/6G wireless, data center for AI/ML training, and satellite
networks.
Each EDA category contains recommended bundles for getting budgetary quotes. Please discuss with
your Keysight EDA specialist to verify your product selection and optimize your investment with Keysight
Technologies, like thousands of satisfied customers around the world for over three decades