Ansoft Corporation

AnsoftLinks™

Links Ansoft's HFSS™, SIwave™, Q3D Extractor™, and Ansoft Designer™ to Mentor Graphics Board Station, Expedition and PADS (PowerPCB) PCB Environments

Product Description

With AnsoftLinks™ for Mentor Graphics Board Station, Expedition and PADS (PowerPCB), selected traces in your Mentor board design file can be automatically translated and converted into Ansoft models for ready simulation within any one of Ansoft's family of electromagnetic-based EDA tools. This frees the design engineer from the tedious task of manually redrawing a layout and streamlines the process for physical verification.

Special Features

• Ability to select nets to be analyzed from within the Mentor Graphics? Board Station environment by specifying the net name(s), selecting specific traces by pointing and clicking, or selecting a region of the board
• Allows the editing of any stack-up information, such as individual layer thickness, dielectric constant, and conductivity
• Automatically generates 3D solid model of selected traces, supply planes, and vias
• Automatically unites touching metal on different layers into the same conductor
• Automatically adds ports or sources to identified pins
• Allows automatic defeaturing of selected nets to minimize complexity and solution time
• Easy-to-use, menu-driven interface

Benefits

Ansoft uniquely provides 3D accurate electrical descriptions in both frequency (S parameters) and time-domain (SPICE subcircuits) for printed circuit boards (PCBs), including MCMs.

By providing a seamless interface between Ansoft and Mentor's board tools, PCB designers benefit from having additional features and capabilities of Ansoft's products while maintaining their existing Mentor centric design flow. Ansoft's range of 3D electromagnetic solvers allows for the full electrical characterization/analysis of PCBs, including the effects of complex, partial, split, and meshed power and ground plane structures.

With AnsoftLinks™ for Mentor, selected traces in your board design can be automatically translated and converted into Ansoft's Neutral File Format for use within Ansoft's HFSS, Q3D Extractor, SIwave, and Ansoft Designer products. This frees the design engineer from the tedious task of manually redrawing a layout in order to perform 3D electromagnetic physical verification.

About HFSS™

HFSS is the industry-standard software tool for the 3D electromagnetic (EM) analysis of microwave and high-speed digital components and systems. HFSS, used by engineers worldwide to design high-speed ICs, PCBs, antennas, and other devices, significantly shortens the EM-based design flow, from design capture, to analysis, to post-processing. The software's revolutionary new design environment-called the Ansoft Desktop- tightly integrates every step in this design flow and is the foundation on which the software is built. Not only is HFSS easy to use because of its Windows?-type environment, but its powerful capabilities and adherence to strict requirements for accuracy make it the ideal high-frequency design-automation tool, regardless of the application or skill level.

About SIwave™

With the increasing speed and diminishing size of today's high-speed devices, conventional circuit-based signal-integrity analysis alone is not enough. SIwave™, wave-enabled software for the advanced analysis of printed circuit boards (PCBs), components, and packages, addresses the rigorous demands placed on high-speed designers. SIwave is the only signal-integrity tool on the market to allow both frequency- and time-domain results to be generated from a physical description of the device, allowing engineers to model not only individual components, but also entire PCBs and package structures. Ansoft's established strengths in electromagnetic simulation of high-speed devices, combined with SPICE-based transistor-level analysis provide the widest range of simulation capabilities available today for satisfying even the most challenging ground, power, and signal-integrity requirements.

About Q3D Extractor™

As electronic designs grow in functionality and decrease in size, it is imperative that designers understand the behavior and the underlying physics of their devices. Q3D Extractor, a physics-based EDA tool for the electromagnetic-field simulation of two-dimensional (2D) and arbitrary three-dimensional (3D) structures, provides engineers with unprecedented levels of accuracy and confidence in their designs. Consisting of 2D and 3D solver engines, an easy-to-use drawing tool, Q3D Extractor provides a complete environment for modeling electronic structures.

About Ansoft Designer™

Ansoft Designer™ is the first suite of design tools to fully integrate high-frequency, physics-based electromagnetic simulation into a seamless environment. The software merges the power of electromagnetics into circuit and system-level simulation. So whether your design challenge is a Bluetooth transceiver, a radar system, or an MMIC or RFIC, Ansoft Designer gives you complete control over every design task from within one simple, unified environment. The key to this integration is a unique capability called Solver on Demand™, which orchestrates the use of multiple solvers. Ansoft Designer extends this automation and integration even further by enabling work created in other types of design software to be rapidly imported as easily as if it was created within Ansoft Designer itself.is the first suite of design tools to fully integrate high-frequency, physics-based electromagnetic simulation into a seamless environment. The software merges the power of electromagnetics into circuit and system-level simulation. So whether your design challenge is a Bluetooth transceiver, a radar system, or an MMIC or RFIC, Ansoft Designer gives you complete control over every design task from within one simple, unified environment. The key to this integration is a unique capability called Solver on Demand™, which orchestrates the use of multiple solvers. Ansoft Designer extends this automation and integration even further by enabling work created in other

Company Background

Founded in 1984, Ansoft is a leading developer of high-performance electronic design automation (EDA) software. Engineers use Ansoft software to design state-of-the-art electronic products, such as cellular phones, Internet-access devices, broadband networking components and systems, integrated circuits (ICs), printed circuit boards (PCBs), automotive electronic systems, power electronics, and fuel-cell technology. Ansoft markets its products worldwide through its own direct sales force and has comprehensive customer-support and training offices throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. To learn more, please visit  www.ansoft.com.

Platforms Supported

Windows

• Intel® Pentium® class III or 4 processor
• Windows 2000
• Windows XP

Sun

• Solaris 2.7 and 2.8
• UltraSparc (v8+) processor or better

Other

• HP
• HP-UX 11.0 or higher
• PA-RISC 2.0 or better
• 3D graphics cards
• Hardware-accelerated OpenGL API
• 16 MB VRAM minimum

Distribution and Contact Information

For further details or to find a local Ansoft sales office near you, please visit www.ansoft.com/find_a_rep_popup.cfm, or contact:

Ansoft Corporation
225 West Station Square Drive
Suite 200
Pittsburg, PA 15219-1119

Tel: 412-261-3200
Fax: 412-471-9427
Web: www.ansoft.com