An integrated EDA-tools flow improves designers' productivity

摘要

EDA software is the key to efficient design of an RF IC. Ideally, designers want to use one software product for every step in the design process-from schematic entry to final layout. However, a complete design flow more likely requires the use of several compatible tools. To demonstrate this more likely scenario, the following design flow of a prescaler (frequency divider) RF IC uses several types of software (Figure 1). I began the process using Cadence for schematic entry and layout (www.cadence.com). Agilent's RF IC Dynamic Link then allowed me to directly simulate the Cadence schematics within Agilent's ADS (Advanced Design System, www.agilent.com). IBM provided design kits (model libraries) for the IBM 5HP SiGe foundry for both ADS and Cadence. I performed layout verification with Columbus RF from Sequence, and IBM's SiGe foundry service fabricated the prescaler (www.ibm.com, www.sequence design.com). For design-flow verification, I measured a number of samples and compared those results with results from the simulation.