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Introduction to the Electromagnetic Simulations in Virtuoso RF Solution
After a fully functional layout view of a chip, package or PCB design is ready, it is important to resimulate the design to see the effect of the devices added while preparing the layout. For a Virtuoso RF design, it means running a simulation to study the RF behavior of the passive devices, such as Pcells, inductors, baluns, transformers, MiM/MoM capacitors, and interconnects, that are added to the layout view. Simulators, such as Spectre, require physical model or 3D models to run simulation for such devices. The Electromagnetic Solver assistant in Virtuoso Layout MXL provides an interface to create 3D models for such devices by running the S-Parameter (Scattering Parameters) extraction. These S-Parameters describe the electrical behavior of the linear electrical networks in the design.
For extraction, the Electromagnetic Solver assistant is integrated with two extraction engines: Clarity™ 3D Solver, and EMX® Planar 3D Solver. Depending on your design and the accuracy requirements, you can choose an engine to run extraction and generate 3D models that are saved in touchstone files. Next, you can backannotate these S-parameter 3D models to the schematic view and run Spectre simulations.
For an IC layout, if you have access to the connectivity details, you can choose specific objects in the layout and create an extracted view for those. If you do not have access to nets and connections of devices in the layout, you can run full cellview extraction to create sparam views for the entire layout.
Related Topics
Electromagnetic Model Creation in Virtuoso RF Solution
Launching the Electromagnetic Solver Assistant
Licensing Requirements
To use the Electromagnetic Solver assistant as part of the Virtuoso RF Solution flow in IC23.1for a package fabric, you require the following licenses:
To use the Electromagnetic Solver assistant as part of the Virtuoso RF Solution flow in IC23.1for an IC fabric, you require the following licenses:
One or more of the following licenses for the solver you want to use:
- SYS300 Clarity 3D Solver, if you want to run high-performance electromagnetic simulation on multi-core computing resources. The adaptive finite element mesh (FEM) refinement technology of Clarity 3D provides consistent accuracy for complicated 3D structures.
- EMX_SOLVER, if you want to use EMX Planar 3D Solver.
Related Topics
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