Applied Wave Research Inc. (AWR) has released Microwave Office 2007 and Visual System Simulator (VSS) 2007, the latest versions of its RF design tool suites.

Microwave Office offers high-frequency designers a broad-line suite that includes system-level block diagrams, linear and nonlinear circuit simulators, electromagnetic analysis tools, layout-vs.-schematic checks, statistical design capabilities, and parametric cell libraries with built-in design rule checking. VSS is a simulation solution for the design of end-to-end communications systems.

These solutions serve a broad range of designers, said Mike Heimlich, director of product marketing for Microwave Office at AWR (San Jose, Calif.).

The primary new feature in Microwave Office 2007 is Automated Circuit Extraction (ACE), which AWR claims reduces the time required to model complex interconnects from hours to seconds due to its ability to leverage layout-based models for circuit extraction. ACE, Heimlich said, is an alternative to the traditional approach to microwave circuit extraction.

"We start with the same layout geometries, but instead of extracting RLC [resistance-inductance-capacitance] networks, we create networks of distributed and coupled line models that leverage the vast libraries of these models we've had for our traditional microwave customers for years," Heimlich said. The result is accurate broadband simulation, he said. The long EM analysis runs that customers typically run "don't give a picture of where the couplings are," he said. "With ACE you get a picture and you get it much faster, sometimes 1,000 times faster."

ACE looks at the layout, identifies the interconnect, and determines which lines are coupling and which lines have crossovers, Heimlich said. It creates a netlist of coupled line models and distributed line models. "It's very similar to a digital circuit simulator, except it has microwave sensibilities. It knows where ground is," he said.

VSS 2007 marks the first production shipment of RFA, an RF architectural planning and specification tool. "This allows you to take a system block diagram and track where the spurious tones or harmonics are, and find out how each block in the design is contributing to those," Heimlich said.

Part of RFA is a new simulation engine, RF Inspector. This system-level tool aims to help RF designers find potential pitfalls early in the design process, such as undesired spurs of an RF link, including the effects of conversions, harmonics, and noise. "It's specifically designed to walk through a block diagram and track different frequencies and give you a way go do planning and analysis of transceivers," said Dane Collins, AWR's CEO.

Microwave Office 2007 and VSS 2007 will be available in the third quarter at prices ranging from $5,000 to $40,000.