PCB Product Creation Platform gets Advanced Analog/Mixed-Signal, High-Speed Analysis features targeting design Engineers

Mentor Graphics Corp. has made additions to its PADS PCB Product Creation
Platform designed to address engineering challenges associated with mixed-signal design, DDR implementation, and electrically-correct design signoff.

The additions consist of a new PADS AMS Design Suite, PADS AMS Cloud, PADS HyperLynx DRC, and PADS HyperLynx DDR modules. Combined with the recently announced PADS HyperLynx DC Drop and PADS FloTHERM XT products for power integrity and thermal analysis, the extended PADS Product Creation Platform is said to give better access to technologies formerly out of reach for the mainstream PCB market.

Mentor’s rationale for the new release is that the vast majority of today’s electronic products contain analog content which must be designed and validated in the context of the overall system, making analog/mixed signal simulation critical for product creation. To address this need, the new PADS AMS Cloud – which is a cloud-based circuit exploration/simulation environment and user community – is available FREE for all PADS users.

Users from all levels of expertise can create and share analog, mixed-signal, and mixed-technology designs in an online, collaborative environment where designs and models can be published or downloaded. A special benefit for PADS customers: Circuit designs created in PADS AMS Cloud can be transferred to the PADS AMS Design Suite desktop environment, eliminating the need to manually recreate circuits to perform advanced analysis and drive the PCB design flow.

The PADS AMS Design Suite is said to empower engineers to design and simulate analog/mixed-signal (AMS) and digital in one environment. Within one schematic session, both analog circuit simulation leveraging the power and flexibility of VHDL-AMS, (an IEEE standard, along with a SPICE-based simulation engine), and topology exploration with the HyperLynx tool can be performed. Beyond common core AMS simulation analysis (DC Bias, time-domain, and frequency-domain simulations) additional extended analysis capabilities are included as standard, such as multi-run parametric sweeps, sensitivity, Monte Carlo, and Worst Case analysis to address specific engineering needs.

Key benefits of PADS Analog/Mixed Signal Design:
 Schematic design (including component data management, constraint definition, and variant capability), analog circuit simulation, and PADS HyperLynx prelayout analysis in a single environment.
 Seamless and accurate representation of both electronic and electromechanical elements of a circuit.
 Core capabilities for circuit verification and optimization against real-world variability.

DDR memory has become commonplace across the spectrum of electronics designs and is now found in the mainstream markets. By extending the PADS Product Creation Platform to include integrated DDR simulation, the new PADS HyperLynx DDR option allows engineers to quickly identify and solve signal integrity (SI) and timing issues specific to DDRx designs in an easy-to-use and affordable environment.

Key capabilities:
 Identifying and resolving SI impairments (overshooting/undershooting, ringing) and timing issues (set-up/hold, de-rating, skew, data bus margins).
 Easy setup, automated whole-bus simulation, and consolidated results reporting with DDR Wizard.
 Streamlined summary pass/fail judgment on entire interfaces.
 HTML-based reporting which provides design documentation and Web-based
publication of results.

Now available for the mainstream PCB design market, 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 performance of the board. With pre-defined rules, issues such as traces crossing voids and traces changing reference planes can be quickly identified even on the largest designs. Integrated electrical DRC technology enables engineers to be confident that their PCB designs are electrically correct before hand-off to manufacturing.

Key capabilities:
 Fast and easy time to results with a rules-based approach to identify non-CAD constraints.
 Out-of-the-box checks for EMI, signal integrity, and power integrity.
 Visual results, easy identification of violations integrated with the PADS PCB product.

The new PADS release with PADS AMS, PADS DRC and PADS DDR analysis options range from $3,560 (USD) to $4,995 (USD).

The new PADS capabilities are also explained in a series of videos:
PADS HyperLynx DC Drop
PADS FloTHERM XT (Electronics Cooling)
PADS HyperLynx DRC
PADS AMS (Analog/Mixed-Signal)
PADS HyperLynx DDR
More information: Mentor Graphics Corp., 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, OR 97070-7777, www.pads.com, 1-800-547-3000.