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ADS has its own hierarchy when dealing with any file. You cannot just open a circuit or
look at a set of data. Everything is associated with a project file. These files will always
end in _prj. For example, in Fig. 1 there is a folder called untitled_prj. Expanding it
shows five folders. Everything from circuits, new components, data from instruments,
data from simulations, data displays, layouts, etc. will be stored in one of these folders.
Create a new project by clicking File New Project. Use the current directory and add
the name my_first_project and hit OK. ADS will automatically add the _prj. A quick
note about any file name in ADS: never use spaces. The program has its origins in the
UNIX operating system, which is both case sensitive and treats spaces differently than in
Windows. Save yourself some future headaches; use underscores instead.
A new window like Fig. 2 should have appeared (If not, on the main window some of the
icons that were grayed out before opening can now be clicked. Click on the icon that is a
white background with a capacitor and inductor fore ground.). Fig. 2 is a schematic
window where components can be placed and simulations setup. We will create an RC
circuit and do an AC simulation.
Lets place some components. Notice in the left side of the schematic window there are
already some to choose from. Click on the top left one, a resistor (not the boxed resistor,
that is a model and we will not deal with it here), and place it on the grid with a left click.
Hit the escape key to stop placing the component and to cancel most commands. Now,
click a capacitor and place it in the grid, too. For style, we need to change the orientation
of the capacitor. Left click the capacitor so that it is highlighted. In Fig. 2, there is an
icon that says 90 degrees circled with a black 3 by it. Click this once and the capacitor
will be rotated. Connect the two parts with wire, which will be a purple color. In Fig. 2,
this is the icon of a wire with two red dots at the end, circles with a green 4. Click this,
and left click an end of the resistor to an end of the capacitor. They will now be
connected and the red dots at the ends will change to blue ones, meaning a connection
has been made (When placing components, if the component being added is placed with
its unconnected end on another components unconnected end, ADS automatically
connects them like a wire. This can be useful when placing components and an
annoyance when moving them around).
We need a source. The two components we used are in the Lumped-Components library.
Click on the pull-down icon which is circled with a red 1 in Fig. 2 and select the
Sources-Freq Domain. Click the component V_AC, place it in the circuit, and connect it
with a wire (not directly) to the other end of the resistor. To complete the circuit,
grounds are needed. In Fig. 2, this is the symbol that looks like a circuit ground and is
circled with a blue 2. Add two grounds and connect to the signal and capacitor. Note
that you can search all the component libraries by clicking on the books icon near the
ground icon.
It will become very useful to label nodes and wires. Click the icon that says NAME and
is circled with an orange 5 if Fig. 2. A small window will appear. In the window, type
Vin and click on the purple wire connected between the source and resistor. It should
now be labeled Vin in purple. Go back to
the window and type in Vout and label the
wire between the capacitor and resistor.
Hit escape to terminate the window and
command. The circuit should look almost
like Fig. 3. As a side note, if the text of a
component is in the way, hit F5, left-click
on the component of the text you want to
move (not the text itself) and move the text
to a better position and left-click again.
A simulation must be setup in the circuit if
anything else is to be done other than have
a pretty circuit picture. ADS can do many
simulations including DC, AC, Sparameter, Harmonic Balance, Transient,
and much more. We want an AC
simulation; pull down the library menu to
Simulation-AC and add the icon AC, which
looks like a gear, to the circuit. It does not
connect to anything, it merely tells ADS
what model you are using. Double
clicking this or anything in the circuit schematic brings up all the properties.
Double click the AC block. We need to adjust the frequency range of interest. Change
the range to that of Fig. 4. Save the file. Hit Ctrl + S and save the file as rc_test1.
Notice that ADS saves these files in the networks folder under the my_first_project_prj
folder. One last thing is to setup where the simulation data will go and where to display
it. At the top of the schematic window go to Simulate Simulation Setup Make sure
the Dataset and Data Display are both rc_test1. If we needed to have two sets of data,
and not overwrite the original, this is where you should change the file name to which the
data is saved. This also applies for the display window.
We are ready to simulate. Hit the simulate button (or from the schematic window hit F7
or the gear icon in the top right of the schematic window). A blank data display window
will now open as in
Fig. 5. On the left
side are 6 icons that
can do rectangular
plots, polar plots,
Smith Chart plots,
multiple plots, tables,
and equations
respectively. We will
want to do a standard
plot. Left click the
rectangular plot icon,
go to the middle of
the window and left
click (note that you
can hold down the left
mouse button and
draw the size of
plot you want. Give it
Fig. 5 Data Display Window
a try later). Now a series of little windows will popup. Do the following: click Vout and
then the >>Add >> button. Another window will pop up telling you that the data is
complex and asking how to plot it.
Click phase and hit OK. Now hit OK
and a plot should appear as in Fig. 6.
Notice that at higher frequencies, the
phase approaches -90 degrees, as is
expected for an RC circuit. Double click
the graph and the properties for the
graph that were just setup will open.
Notice that the same five icons are near
the top of this window. Click the dual
graphs icon here, select Vout again, click >>Add>>, this time select magnitude, and hit
both OK buttons again. Now two plots with phase and magnitude will appear as in Fig.
6. You have now gone through the basics of ADS. Lets go though an S-parameter
simulation.
Go back to the schematic window, click File New Design and give it the name
quarter_wave_example. Notice that there are buttons to open the design in the current
window or a new window and that there are design templates. Go ahead and hit OK. Our
design will be a simple quarter-wavelength matching network. If the frequency = 5 GHz,
Zin = 50 and Zout = 100 ,
then we will need a
transmission line of impedance
73 . Transmission lines can
be found in the Tlines-Ideal
library. Use the pull-down
menu to find it about a quarter
of the way down the list. The
component needed is the first
one in the library, TLIN. Place
this in the schematic. Its initial
resistance is Z = 50 Ohm, left
click the 50 and edit it to 73
Ohm (Again, any component
parameter can be edited by
double left-clicking the
component). Its operating
Fig. 7 Quarter-Wavelength Circuit
ADS has many other tools built into it. A popular one is LineCalc. This tool calculates
impedances and dimensions for the much different geometry of wave-guides and
microstrip lines. To start the tool, there must already be a schematic open. Use the
quarter-wave circuit just built. From the schematic at the top choose Tools LineCalc
Start LineCalc. A window such as that below will appear.
At the top is the Type of structure to be analyzed. The program defaults to microstrip.
Take a look at some of the other available such as COAX and CPW. The ID is the name
of the defaults being viewed. This has initial parameter values and an initial Type. You
can make your own ID if you wish. For the microstrip the parameters stand for:
Er relative permitivity
Mur relative permeability
H height of the substrate
Hu if the design was covered by a metal box, this would be its height
T conductor thickness
Cond conductivity of the conductor
TanD dielectric loss tangent
Rough RMS surface roughness of the dielectric
W width of conductor
L length of line
Z0 characteristic impedance of line
E_Eff effective electrical length
K_Eff effective dielectric permitivity of the system
A_DB total attenuation of the system
Lets go through an example. Set all but the Physical parameters (W and L) to those as in
Fig. 9. Notice there are two arrows. Clicking the arrow pointing up will calculate W and L
of the microstrip while clicking the down arrow will calculate Z0 and E_Eff. Push the up
arrow. The simulator will run and the W and L will be calculated as in Fig. 9. Lets go
the other way. Set W = 50 mil and click the down arrow. Now Z0 = 17.806900 and
E_Eff = 98.733400. A wider conductor gives lower impedance as would be expected.
This concludes this tutorial. I hope it was helpful. There is so much more to learn about
this program but if you sit down and experiment for an hour or two it will be well worth
your time. If there are questions or corrections please email sanabria@ece.ucsb.edu.
Seeds of Change
IMS 2010
MICROAPPS SCHEDULE
Date and Time:
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09:30
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Tuesday, May 25
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Product
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AWR Solution
OPENWAVE FORUM
model, they can easily be obtained using a vector network analyzer and distributed
for simulation. S-parameters use superposition to equate the linear relationship
between incident and reflected waves at all of the devices ports. Nonlinear devices,
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Linear and nonlinear device models are the building blocks of most RF and
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Malcolm Edwards
AWR Corporation
malcolm@awrcorp.com
arbitrary harmonic impedances. The data is used to populate the Cardiff Model,
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10
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