Lecture 5.

INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

INTRODUCTION
TO
ANSOFT DESIGNER®
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Software Tools for RF/Microwave Design

RF designers nowadays extensively use various simulation tools when
designing RF components.

There are many commercial software packages for simulation of RF circuits that
may be obtained on the market. Companies such as Ansoft Corporation™,
Agilent Technologies™, Sonnet™, Eagleware™, etc. offer simulation programs
that very often incorporate circuit modeling, full electromagnetic simulation, as
well as statistical analysis of RF components and systems.

We will give a brief overview of two commercial RF simulation packages offered

by Ansoft Corporation™:
Ansoft Designer®
Ansoft HFSS®
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Software Tools for RF/Microwave Design (cont.)

Ansoft Designer® is an integrated schematic and

design tool used for complex analog, RF and mixed
signal applications. It enables RF engineers to
design, optimize, and validate component, circuit,
and system performance long before building a
prototype of RF circuit.

Ansoft HFSS® is a full 3D electromagnetic simulator

widely used for the design of various passive and
active RF components, interconnects, antennas, and
RFIC packages. It is based on finite element
numerical method and provides a user friendly
graphic user interface.
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

This is how Ansoft Designer® Desktop looks after the program is started:

Software Tools for RF/Microwave Design (cont.)

Click on this icon to introduce a circuit editor

This pop-up
window shows up
letting you choose
layout properties of
your RF circuit (we
will choose ‘None’
option)
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

The schematic editor window allows you to place components and wire them
together. You can move components by simply selecting and dragging them. Copy
and paste can be used on components and their wires within the schematic editor.

You can also copy

and paste to other
schematics.

Click on ‘Components’ to import

various models of RF components
into your circuit model
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Choose a component and simply

drag it into the schematic editor
window
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Position cursor over the end of the

component and drag to the end of
the subsequent component to wire
the two.
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Double-click on the component to

edit its properties (impedance,
electrical length, etc)
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Click on this icon to introduce

ports. Double-click on a port opens
a window that enables editing
properties of the port.
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

In order to define operating frequency range, click on ‘Analysis’.

Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Click on this icon to perform analysis of your circuit model!

Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Right-click on ‘Results’ to define

parameters to be displayed and to
display results of your simulation.
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Instead of an ideal distributed component

with electrical parameters (such as
characteristic impedance and electrical
length), we can also define components with
physical parameters (stripline in this case).
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Double-click on a physical component

opens up a window that enables
definition of component parameters.
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Click on ‘Substrate’ to define

properties of substrate.
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Click on ‘TRL’ to open a Transmission tool that

performs necessary transformations of electrical into
physical parameters and vice versa.
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Analysis of the new physical circuit as well as

displaying results is described before.
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

You can further improve your circuit model and

bring it closer to the actual geometrical model
of your RF component by adding various
models of RF discontinuities.
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

This circuit simulator also lets you

define variables and optimize them for
a predefined goals (double-click on a
component which parameters you
want to edit).
Lecture 5. INTRODUCTION TO ANSOFT DESIGNER®

Next class we will build a full 3D geometrical model of the divider whose circuit
model we developed today.