“These products address engineering challenges associated with mixed signal design, DDR implementation and electrically correct design sign off,” explained Jim Martens, product marketing manager, board systems division. “At a time when electronic designs are becoming more complex, we felt it was important that we not only addressed the needs of larger technology companies but also SMEs – design teams, no matter what size, face the same challenges. Too many analysis tools are targeted at companies with large EDA budgets and we wanted to make those tools available to the mainstream engineer.”
According to Martens, the additions are intended to be ‘tightly integrated and very affordable’. “The new products are intended to streamline the design process and ensure circuit performance goals are met, reducing the need for prototypes and design respins,” he said. “All products are becoming more challenging to develop … and these new PADS products, combined with recently launched PADS HyperLynx DC Drop and PADS FloTHERM XT, mean we will be able to give engineers greater access to technologies that have tended to be out of reach of the mainstream PCB market.”
As more electronic products being developed contain analogue content and need to be designed and validated in the context of the overall system, analogue/mixed signal simulation is becoming increasingly essential for product creation.
PADS AMS Cloud – a cloud-based circuit exploration/simulation environment and user community – will be free for all PADS users, who will be able to create and share analogue, mixed-signal, and mixed-technology designs in an online environment.
It will also be possible to transfer designs created in PADS AMS Cloud to the PADS AMS Design Suite, eliminating the need to recreate circuits manually in order to perform advanced analysis and drive the PCB design flow.
The PADS AMS Design Suite will allow engineers to design and simulate analogue and mixed signal and digital designs within one schematic session. Beyond common core AMS simulation analysis, extended analysis capabilities are included as standard, such as multi-run parametric sweeps, sensitivity, Monte Carlo, and Worst Case analysis.
Meanwhile, the PADS HyperLynx DDR option will allow engineers to identify and solve signal integrity and timing issues specific to DDRx designs.
The PADS HyperLynx DRC tool accelerates the electrical sign-off process by allowing engineers to perform electrical rules checks and identify violations that will affect the design integrity and board performance. Integrated electrical DRC technology will allow engineers to be more confident that their PCB designs are electrically correct before hand-off to manufacturing.
“We have sought to bolster our PADS product creation platform so that electrical engineers can now access technologies that have traditionally been beyond their reach,” Martens concluded.