News and New Products

SIwave 4.0 addresses signal and power integrity

By Rick Nelson, Editor-in-Chief -- EDN, 6/17/2009

Part of the Ansys’ Ansoft family of products, SIwave (signal-integrity-wave) Version 4.0 includes new features for signal-integrity, power-integrity, and electromagnetic-compatibility testing. Enhancements include an improved desktop graphical user interface, access to postprocessing results, and solver enhancements that provide accurate results beyond 10 Gbps. In addition, you can now automatically link SIwave electromagnetics with circuit simulation using the Ansoft Nexxim circuit-simulation and -analysis software and Ansoft Designer schematic- and design-management front end. To account for board and package thermal effects, a new link through Ansys Icepak software enables accurate characterization of additional heating due to copper-resistive losses that engineers have previously estimated or ignored.

The SIwave electromagnetic-field solver performs broadband signal- and power-integrity and dc-voltage and current analysis for boards and packages. SIwave software offers electromagnetic-interference and compatibility analyses, and it can couple board and package electromagnetic fields with HFSS, 3-D, full-wave electromagnetic-field-simulation software for system-level simulation (see “Simulation gets speed, capacity boost,” EDN, Jan 22, 2009, pg 26).

SIwave features an enhanced graphical user interface that eases component management and allows simultaneous analyses and dynamic zooming. A new reporter feature eases and speeds the analysis of results. Improved solver enhancements include smart coupling algorithms with an advanced via solver and nonuniform hexagonal- and trapezoidal-trace cross-sections that provide accurate results at speeds greater than 10 Gbps. A new coplanar algorithm within the solver extends accuracy for difficult package designs, and a new field solver provides on-the-fly calculations of trace characteristics. Enhanced near- and far-field solvers address electromagnetic-interference and compatibility problems for data-dependent fields when you link them to circuit simulation using Ansoft Designer software.

The release includes multiple automation enhancements that ease design flows by removing tedious manipulations that you would otherwise have to perform manually. SIwave incorporates automated error checking and geometry correction. Using the new version with Ansoft Designer provides automated schematic creation and electromagnetic-driven transient- and QuickEye-analysis setups for circuit simulation. The technology now also allows native merging of packages to PCBs (printed-circuit boards). SIwave also uses the provided header information to automatically create ports for Apache RedHawk chip power modules.