UNIT – I

Introduction to
Simulation
Advanced Design System
• ADS provides a vast array of simulation modes and models.
• ADS is a simulator like spice, cadence. But it focuses on the RF and
microwave design, so most of its devices on the library are microwave
devices.
• Since ADS is oriented toward microwave applications, you will find that it
contains a much larger library of transmission line and passive component
models that include nonidealities of these components.
• When dealing with high speed interconnections, this might provide the
incentive to learn to use ADS.
• On the other hand, ADS has yet to handle transistor model libraries in a
convenient manner.
ADS Analysis
• –DC analysis: is used for determining the bias point of the circuit.
• –Transient analysis: runs the time domain analysis on the circuits and
considers the nonlinearity of the elements.
• –AC analysis: runs the small signal analysis and use the linear model of
elements on their bias point. So the nonlinear elements like transistor
are replaced by a linear model (small signal circuit) which includes
resistors, capacitors, inductors and voltage & current sources.
• –S parameters analysis: calculates the Scattering parameters of the
components, and shows the variation of the S parameters over different
frequencies. It is also used for calculating noise figure and group delay
DC Analysis

• DC simulation analyses the static operating points (DC voltages and currents) at
each nonlinear node and port in the circuit.
• When designing circuits using non-linear models, you should always check the
DC operating point before doing linear or harmonic balance simulations.
• DC analysis is very fast and will help to make sure that you have entered a
workable design
DC Simulation
• DC analysis finds solutions to the systems of equations that describe the circuit
that are constant valued.
• DC analysis does not distinguish between stable and unstable equilibrium points
and is just as likely to output an unstable equilibrium point as a stable one.
• Finds Equilibrium Points
• Some circuits have multiple equilibrium points
• Equilibrium points may be unstable
• There are three types of equilibrium points: stable, unstable, and non-isolated.
• Non-isolated equilibrium points typically result from floating nodes (nodes with
no DC path to ground for example inductor act as short-circuits at DC).
AC Simulation
• AC analysis: Analysis of frequency characteristics. (Capacitance, gain-phase)

• AC analysis mainly addresses characteristics relating to frequency. Representative

quantities include analysis of the impedance as a function of frequency and of the
gain-phase characteristic.

• This is a linear phasor analysis of the circuit. The simulation result is a phasor
(magnitude and phase) of the voltages and the currents circuit. We can use it to
calculate the transfer function from the input to the desired output. Here we
define the frequency range to perform the simulation
AC Simulation
• Noise analysis is a variation of AC analysis that computes the response
of a circuit to collection of small noise sources.
• AC analysis computes the transfer function of the circuit and does not
take into account large signal effects such as distortion of clipping.
• Many circuits, particularly those used in communication applications
do not operate about a DC operating point. All of the circuits listed
above that are unsuitable for AC and noise analysis only operate
properly with a large, usually periodic, signal applied.
• For example, mixers need an LO signal to operate and switched-
capacitor filters need a clock.
Properties of RF Signals

• Modulated signals with very narrow modulation

• Bandwidth- E.G. 5 MHz WCDMA on a 2 GHz carrier.
• The amplitude and phase of the carrier change very slowly in time
with one symbol transition every 400 RF cycles.
• Biased circuits can take a long time to reach steady-state
• Require high dynamic range in simulation
• Simply not practical to a traditional SPICE simulation
Modeling of Nonlinear Microwave Circuits

Two Commercially Available Approaches:

Harmonic Balance Simulation
• Assume that the signals in a circuit are a sum of sinusoids
Periodic Steady-State Simulation (PSS)
• Spice based
• Assume that there is one large periodic signal Determine dynamic
state of the circuit
Why Harmonic Balance Analysis?
• Distributed circuit elements are almost exclusively modelled, measured, and
analysed in the frequency domain, and their incorporation in SPICE-like
simulators is notoriously unreliable and inefficient.
• Multi-tone simulations (those that involve an application of two or more
sinusoids that are harmonically unrelated) are very common in RF and microwave
applications but, again, very difficult to handle in time domain simulators.
• Many high-frequency circuits are high-Q, implying that they exhibit transients
that last over hundreds and even thousands of carrier cycles. RF and microwave
designers are primarily interested in steady-state responses, and time is wasted in
the process of simulating through the transients.
• HB simulators overcome these problem
Why Harmonic balance?
• Matching Circuits may contain such elements as transmission lines
discontinuities and multiport subnetworks described by S or Y
parameters. These are difficult to analyse in the time domain.
• Components modelled in frequency domain, for instance transmission
lines
• Circuit time constants large compared to period of simulation
frequency
• Circuits with lots of reactive components
Harmonic Balance
• Harmonic balance is a frequency-domain analysis technique for
simulating nonlinear circuits and systems.
• The HB method is a powerful technique for the analysis of high-
frequency (RF and Microwave) nonlinear circuits such as mixers,
power amplifiers, and oscillators.
Harmonic Balance
• Use the Harmonic Balance controller to:
• Determine the spectral content of voltages or currents.
• Compute quantities such as third-order intercept points, total
harmonic distortion, and intermodulation distortion components.
• Perform power amplifier load-pull contour analyses.
• Perform nonlinear noise analysis.
Harmonic Balance Vs Transient Analysis (Simulations)
• Harmonic balance is a frequency domain solver and transient analysis is in the
time domain.
• Transient simulations allow the simulation of switching behaviour, while HB
simulations yield steady state solutions.
• In time-domain waveforms are represented as a collection of time samples.
• In Frequency-domain, waveforms are represented by coefficients of sinusoids in
trigonometric series.
• In the frequency-domain is that linear dynamic operations, like differentiation or
integration, are converted into simple algebraic operations, such as multiplying
or dividing by frequency, respectively.
Harmonic Balance
• Harmonic Balance obtained its name from a simulation technique
where the computer iteratively adjusts the magnitude and phase of
all harmonic signals flowing around in a circuit until the sum turns to
zero at every node to obey Kirchhoff’s current law.
• When this condition is achieved, “harmonic balance” is achieved, and
the nonlinear circuit is solved.
• The harmonic signals are the complex Fourier coefficients of signals
in the circuit being represented in the frequency domain.
Harmonic Balance
• Complexity further increases, when multiple fundamental tones are
injected, and frequency mixing occurs to generate even more
harmonics for the simulator to achieve HB convergence. This is where
advanced mathematical algorithms are developed.
• The HB solution is determined using a Fourier series representation
of the node voltages and branch currents. This representation results
in the system of equations (which are governed by Kirchhoff’s Current
Law -KCL) in the frequency domain.
Harmonic Balance
• Harmonic balance uses Newton’s method (Outer or nonlinear solver)
to compute the Fourier coefficients for the solution to the system of
equations.
• The amount by which the KCL is violated at each iteration of
Newton's method is known as the KCL residual. Newton's method
(as well as Harmonic Balance) achieves convergence when the KCL
residual is driven to a small value.
• Newton’s method generates a linear system of equations at each
iteration, which is solved using an inner, linear solver. These are Direct
and Krylov.
Harmonic Balance
• Newton's method generates a matrix problem (linear system of
equations) at each iteration. This matrix is known as the Jacobian. An
inner solver in harmonic balance (also referred to as the linear solver)
is used to factor the Jacobian matrix.
Harmonic Balance Method
The solution search, in most general terms, consists of the following steps:
• Specify the set of significant frequencies, specify the desired accuracy, and
determine an initial guess at the solution.
• Calculate the currents that enter the linear subnetwork.
• Calculate the currents through the nonlinear devices.
• Calculate the difference between the two sets of currents.
• Determine a new guess at the solution in a way that reduces the difference.
• Repeat the process starting at Step 2 until Kirchoff's laws are satisfied.
Harmonic Balance Method
• The harmonic balance method partitions the circuit into linear and
nonlinear subcircuits.
Harmonic Balance Method
Harmonic Balance Method
Harmonic Balance Method
Three major factors limit accuracy: –

• The number of tones included in the analysis.

• The aliasing errors due to a finite transform spectrum. This error can
be reduced by considering many tones. The aliasing error is a
numerically introduced error. This sets an upper limit on resolution.
• The final value of the harmonic balance error. The major limiting
factor here is how closely the Jacobian describes the actual error
function.
Envelope Simulation
• Circuit envelope simulation offers designers an efficient way to
analyze amplifiers, mixers, oscillators, and feedback loops in the
presence of modulated and transient high-frequency signals.
• Circuit envelope simulation can be used to simulate circuits sourced
with modulated signals.
• The Envelope analysis is based on Harmonic Balance, but it also
includes additional time integration parts from dynamic models.
• The result of each simulated time point is similar to Harmonic Balance
analysis, as the simulation returns both voltage and current
spectrums.
Envelope Simulation
• Circuit envelope simulation combines elements of harmonic balance and
time-domain simulation techniques to overcome the limitations of both
harmonic balance and SPICE simulators.
• Like harmonic balance, circuit envelope simulation describes the
nonlinear behavior of circuits and the harmonic content of the signals.
• Unlike harmonic balance, however, circuit envelope simulation extends
over time. It is not limited to describe only steady-state behavior.
• In effect, circuit envelope simulation depicts a time-varying series of
harmonic balance results.
Envelope Simulation
• One advantage of circuit envelope over SPICE is that the time step is
determined by the bandwidth of the modulation.
• In circuit envelope simulation, the bandwidth is relatively narrow,
generally only a few Megahertz. Therefore, relatively large time steps
can be used without the risk of sampling errors.
• In SPICE, the time step depends on the frequency of the RF carrier
frequency or its harmonics. These frequencies are very high.
• This greatly increases computation time and memory requirements
Envelope Simulation
• Circuit Envelope employs harmonic balance as part of its solution
process
• Harmonic balance is used by circuit envelope to analyze the system
response at every time step.
• The simulation derives the analysis frequencies from the signal
carriers. The harmonic tone coefficients are time varying and
processed using transient simulation.
• This process provides the time-varying envelopes around the
harmonic tones.
Envelope Simulation
Simulations can include:
• Adjacent Channel Power Ratio
• Noise Power Ratio
• Error Vector Magnitude
• Power Added Efficiency
• Bit Error Rate
EM Simulation
• EM simulation is needed to model high-frequency and high-speed
circuits and devices and absolutely necessary to accurately verify the
interactions between devices in the RF front-end at very high
frequencies.
• Regarding the mere scale of EHF band communication front-ends, it is
impossible to run full simulations at the level of detail an EM analysis
offers. Therefore EM analysis only looks at a small part of the total
design, while the rest of the circuit is simulated at a higher level of
abstraction.
EM Simulation
• Electromagnetic simulator solves numerically Maxwell’s equations.
• Differential or integral equations are transformed into matrix
equations and solved iteratively or by matrix inversion.
• Numerical Method: MoM, FEM, FDTD, TLM
• To this end, the state-of-the-art RF circuit simulation has to be adapted in
order to deal with the specific demands to exactly capture the interaction
between neighbouring devices. In particular the frequency response
calculation requires the ability to inject electromagnetic energy in a
device mode

• At higher frequencies parasitic effects are difficult to model. EM

simulation is commonly used to accurately model such structures.
However, when circuits include the use of lumped components such as
transistors, diodes, and capacitors, most engineers abandon EM as being
too difficult to set up and run large multi-port problems.
• Electromagnetic (EM) computer simulation has become one of the
most powerful design tools for antennas, microwave circuits, and
many high frequency active and passive components. EM is the “third
leg” of the core techniques that define high frequency engineering.
Like the other two—frequency dependent effects and transmission
line behaviour—EM has a unique knowledge requirement, both at the
theoretical level and in the implementation of computational tools
Electromagnetic (EM) simulation
• Electromagnetic (EM) simulation software for designing and
simulating high-frequency electronic products such as antennas,
antenna arrays, RF or microwave components, high-speed
interconnects, filters, connectors, IC packages and printed circuit
boards.
• Engineers worldwide use Ansys HFSS software to design high-
frequency, high-speed electronics found in communications systems,
advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), satellites, and internet-of-
things (IoT) products.
• Electromagnetic simulation software enables engineers to investigate the electromagnetic properties of
components or whole systems efficiently.
• Electromagnetic (EM) systems pose multiscale challenges, such as very wide frequency ranges and electrically
large structures with very fine detail.
• Dedicated solvers exploit specific numerical technologies for fast and accurate simulation.
• EM simulation can be applied throughout the entire design process. From the inception of an idea, to the
synthesis of components to meet specifications, to analysing the electromagnetic performance under
operational conditions: virtual prototypes are transforming the design cycle.
• EM simulation software is a game changer when it comes to reducing the time and cost of bringing a product to
market, not just in the high-tech industries of electronics and communication, but also in aerospace, defence,
transportation and life sciences. Analysis with EM software ranges from individual components such as
antennas, sensors and chips up to entire devices, including aircraft, smartphones and MRI.
• Co-design within the SIMULIA product portfolio integrates EM simulation into industry processes, accelerating
the process of evaluating the performance, reliability and safety of materials and products before committing to
physical prototypes. Multiphysics design flows on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform drive the development process
from the earliest stages.
MOM
• This technique is used to solve Maxwell's electromagnetic equations
for planar structures embedded in a multilayered dielectric substrate.
• The simulation modes available in Momentum (microwave and RF)
are both based on this technique, but use different variations of the
same technology to achieve their results.
• In the method of moments, prior to the discretization, Maxwell's
electromagnetic equations are transformed into integral equations.
• These follow from the definition of suitable electric and magnetic
Green's functions in the multilayered substrate.
MOM
• Method of moments (MoM) is based on the integral formulation of
Maxwell’s equations.
• In the MoM, integral based equations, describing as an example the
current distribution on a wire or a surface, are transformed into
matrix equations easily solved using matrix inversion.
• When using the MoM for surfaces a wire-grid approximation of the
surface can be utilizes.
• The wire formulation of the problem simplifies calculations and are
often used for far field calculations.
FDTD
• In the FDTD method finite difference equations are used to solve Maxwell’s equations for a
restricted computational domain.

• The method require the whole computational domain to be divided, or discretized, into
volume elements (cells) for which Maxwell’s equations have to be solved. The volume
element sizes are determined by considering two main factors:
1. Frequency. The cell size should not exceed λ/10 , where λ is the wavelength corresponding
to the highest frequency in the excitation.
2. Structure. The cell sizes must allow the discretization of thin structures

• After discretizing the structure, the electromagnetic field components, EX, EY , EZ, HX,
• HY , and HZ, are defined for the cells
• FDTD meshes are typically built from rectangular (Yee) cells. The FDTD
method updates the field values while stepping through time, following the
electromagnetic waves as they propagate through the structure. As a result,
a single FDTD simulation can provide data over an ultra-wide frequency
range. Because of its simple, robust nature and its ability to incorporate a
broad range of linear and nonlinear materials and devices, FDTD is used to
study a wide range of applications, including antenna design, microwave
circuits, bio/EM effects, EMC/EMI problems, and photonics. FDTD is an
inherently parallel method and therefore lends itself very well to the
processing capabilities of the most recent advances in CPU (general-purpose
processors) and GPU (graphics processors) hardware. EMPro also supports
remote simulation and distributed port simulations for FDT
Finite Element Method (FEM)
• FEM is based on the differential formulation of Maxwell’s equations in
which the complete field space is discretized.
• In the method, partial differential equations (PDEs) are solved by a
transformation to matrix equations. This is done by minimizing the
energy for a PDE using the mathematical concept functional, F, where
the energy can be obtained by integrating the (unknown) fields over
the structure volume.
• FEM is a frequency-domain technique that can handle arbitrary
shaped structures such as bondwires, conical shape vias and solder
balls/bumps where z-dimensional changes appear in the structure.
Finite Element Method (FEM)
• FEM solvers can also simulate dielectric bricks or finite-size substrates.
• FEM is based on volumetric meshing where the full problem space is divided into
thousands of smaller regions and represents the field in each sub-region
(element) with a local function.
• The geometric model is automatically divided into a large number of tetrahedra,
where a single tetrahedron is formed by four equilateral triangles. This collection
of tetrahedra is referred to as the finite element mesh.
• The Keysight Technologies, Inc. FEM simulator includes both direct and iterative
solvers, and both linear and quadratic basis functions, to solve a broad range of
problems.