Microwave

Office®
For MMICs
Advancing the State With intense time-to-market pressures, our
of High-Frequency designers need proven design flows that work
Design Automation seamlessly and Microwave Office fills this need.

Dr. Simon Mahon, Director of MMIC Design

Mimix Broadband, Inc.

AWR is synonymous with innovation. Developed by monolithic microwave integrated

circuit (MMIC) design engineers who knew there had to be a better way, our
flagship Microwave Office design environment has forever changed the way that
RF/microwave ideas become MMIC reality. What differentiates us from the
competition? A complete design flow that combines cutting edge technologies that
are easy to use, coupled with the ability to integrate your favorite tools for each
part of the design process.

The AWR Design Environment™ (AWRDE), with its revolutionary Unified Data
Model™ (UDM), is such a unique, stable foundation that while others are patching
and updating legacy platforms, we are able to invest our development resources
System in creating new technologies that enable designers to solve the latest, most
Design
challenging problems quickly and accurately. Nearly every wireless, microwave, or
millimeter-wave product on the market today incorporates components designed
with AWR technology. With our winning combination of innovation and ease-of-
use, it’s no wonder our Microwave Office design suite is the industry’s fastest
Circuit growing software platform for MMIC design. AWR enables you to bring your
Design
designs to life in the shortest time and with the greatest flexibility—positively
LVS/DRC
impacting your bottom line!

the awr mmic design flow advantage

The Microwave Office MMIC design flow delivers the industry’s most innovative
tools, most intuitive user interface, and the most complete integration with third
Simulation
Extraction & Analysis party technologies—enabling engineers to solve tough, modern design problems
and maintain their competitive advantage against fierce competition.

Layout The AWR user environment is not just a collection of tools and technology but
rather an integrated, cohesive design flow engineered to maximize your productivity
and minimize the need for training and re-training, manual intervention, and time.

Leading Edge MMIC PDKs Process design kits (PDKs) are the cornerstone of
Much more than a design tool, Microwave
any MMIC EDA flow. AWR works with foundries the same way we work with our
Office software is a complete design flow
customers: we help them solve problems. We have collaborative relationships
offering all of the essential technologies:
with the world’s top foundries, and we work side-by-side with them to develop
linear and nonlinear circuit simulators,
and maintain leading edge PDKs for start-of-the-art design. The result is a whole
EM analysis tools, layout-vs.-schematic
new class of PDKs supporting concurrent electrical-physical co-design in a single
checks, statistical design capabilities, and
environment, simultaneous frequency-time domain simulation support, and single
parametric cell libraries with built-in DRC.
schematic/single environment verification. AWR’s MMIC PDKs reduce risk and
help you deliver production-ready designs from a streamlined flow.

Early Design Flaw Identification Microwave Office software flow and features
were not developed in a vacuum for software’s sake but to enable design
engineering of real products --and design engineering is all about robust design!
ACE™ circuit extraction combined with Intelligent net™ (iNets) schematic-defined
routing speeds your ability to model complex interconnects early in the design flow,
without using time-consuming electromagnetic (EM), so you can quickly capture
and debug critical couplings early in the flow. Circuit-based annotations provide
immediate, simulated-feedback for current density and critical voltages, pin-pointing
reliability issues long before layout. And once you get into layout, AWR’s unique
bridge code makes certain that vias are properly inserted from any routed line to
critical components, like metal insulator metal capacitors (MIM caps), eliminating
difficult-to-find open- and short-circuits that are all too plentiful in other layout tools
Microwave Office software is renowned
user-flexible Design Environment for its speed and convergence, allowing
While other software tools hold customers captive to their way of doing things, MMIC designers to power through the
AWR has built Microwave Office software from the ground up based on the toughtest amplifier simulations, even
concept of a user-flexible environment that encourages additional and alternative simulating changes during layout and
solutions to enable more successful MMIC design. Your flow demands the flexibility verification.
to continue using, or to add third-party point tools and to integrate to adjacent
flows like test or enterprise printed circuit board (PCB). All of these requirements
are possible with the Microwave Office MMIC design flow. In addition, custom in-
house software can be added through industry-standard interfaces, ensuring the
inclusion of all your intellectual property and giving you a leg up on the competition.

Modeling One model, many simulators has been an impossible goal for many decades,
especially if both time- and frequency-domain simulation needs to be supported. AWR
has made it a reality with Verilog-A support for all our
simulators providing you with the ultimate in portability
for nonlinear steady-state and transient design
needs. For greater model security, a C++ interface
is available for both electrical simulation models and
physical ‘pCells’.

EM Socket™ The Microwave Office EM Socket

interface is unique technology developed by AWR to
enable integration with a variety of EM point tools. In
addition, we provide fast, accurate, and efficient EM
analysis through access to our proprietary X-models™
discontinuity models, as well as to our own EM
technologies of EMSight™ and AXIEM™

Verification Socket™ Microwave Office DRC and

layout vs. schematic (LVS) features enable you to
access “signed off/approved” DRC/LVS tools such
as Mentor Graphics’ Calibre® and ICED, which can
be easily orchestrated from within the Microwave
Office environment. And for users of TriQuint PDKs,
the mailDRC option further expedites these steps.
With thousands of designs, AWR’s Unified Data Model is the industry’s most modern
and stable platform for concurrent MMIC design. Linear and nonlinear, frequency- or
time-domain, layout, EM, EXTRACTion, and thru verification, the UDM keeps your
design synchronized thereby giving most designers 50% better design cycle time
over other flows.
 www.awrcorp.com
www.awr.tv

USA A HOST OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Corporate Headquarters
AWR Corporation APLAC® harmonic balance and transient The incomparable APLAC circuit

1960 E. Grand Avenue, Suite 430

simulator combines linear and nonlinear frequency-domain simulation with
time-domain transient. Renowned for its speed and convergence on the
El Segundo, CA 90245
toughest problems, APLAC converges in minutes where others take hours.
+1 310 726 3000
+1 310 726 3005 (fax) ACE automated circuit extraction technology Diagnosing critical couplings
is a breeze with ACE. By creating parameterized netlists using distributed
Japan models, many with highly optimized EM solvers built right in, ACE powers
AWR Japan KK through your layout to create the same models you would have created in the
Level 5, 711 Building schematic, but 10,000x faster than any alternative approach.
7-11-18 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
iNet technology, X-models and bridge code MMIC interconnects are
Tokyo 160-0023 Japan
not just dumb metal in the design; they are the design. Most layout
+81 3 5937 4803
tools treat interconnects as a “don’t care” and capture/simulate
Korea environments make them the problem bain of existence EM
AWR Korea Co. Ltd. solvers. iNets, X-models and bridge code, all powerful,

B-1412, Intellige-II, 24 Jeongja-dong, industry-first technologies from AWR, address interconnects

Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, right up front in the schematic and concurrently and

dynamically synchronize them with the rest of the flow:
Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, 463-811
layout, EM, and verification. These technologies provide
+82.31.603.7772~3
better modeling and reduced verification time for
UK interconnects earlier in the flow, when it’s easier and less
AWR UK costly to find and fix design issues.
2 Hunting Gate
AXIEM 3D planar EM technology The revolutionary AXIEM
Hitchin, Herts product is the industry’s first solver to enable the user to
SG4 0TJ, UK incrementally trade-off speed for accuracy from DC through
+44 (0) 1462 428 428 millimeter wave. AXIEM reduces cycle time with its adjustable speed and
accuracy, and saves infrastructure costs because it is the only 3D planar EM
Finland
solver you need.
AWR – APLAC
Lars Sonckin kaari 16
FI-02600 Espoo, Finland
+358 10 834 5900
AWR GaAs/Gan Foundry Partners

France  Cree Inc.

AWR France  Global Communications Semiconductors (GCS)

140 Avenue Champs Elysees  Northrop Grumman Space Technology

75008 Paris, France  OMMIC

+33 1 70 36 19 63  RFMD
 TriQuint Semiconductor
 United Monolithic Semiconductors (UMS)
 WIN Semiconductors

Copyright © 2010 AWR Corporation. All rights reserved. AWR and the AWR logo, Microwave Office
and APLAC are registered trademarks and Visual System Simulator, AXIEM, ACE, Analyst, AWR Design
Environment, Unified Data Model, EMSight, Intelligent Net, and X-model are trademarks of AWR Corporation.
All others are the property of their respective holders.

BR-MWO-MMIC-2010.5.10