Keysight’s ambitious plans for advanced RF and microwave EDA

Compiled from semiwiki

RF and microwave design is no longer limited to a handful of defense and aerospace electronics engineers huddled in dark cubicles working with spreadsheets and primitive circuit simulators. Now, areas such as 5G and automotive require complex RF systems. Advanced RF and microwave EDA tools are performing electromagnetic (EM), thermal and power simulation, with workflows accessible to everyone from systems engineering to foundry partners.

Judging by the numbers, this opportunity is quickly generating interest. Market analyst Yole Développement predicts that the compound annual growth rate of RF front-end components will be 8.3% by 2026. Digital EDA companies are scrambling to incorporate RF-aware technologies into their EDA portfolios—and finding they need many different products, and not just point products, to enable a complete RF design workflow.

RF front-end components are driving demand for state-of-the-art RF and microwave EDA

As a long-time leader in the RF and microwave design and test industry, Keysight has proven tools and experience that customers have trusted for decades. Its state-of-the-art RF/microwave EDA solutions will drive integration, openness and scalability for anyone looking to innovate – even designers and systems engineers coming from digital backgrounds with less RF knowledge. Nilesh Kamdar, senior director and product portfolio manager of RF/microwave, power electronics and device modeling products at KEYSIGHT, introduced his future views on RF microwave EDA.

Embark on the road to success with your customers

Kamdar believes that his business and its mission with customers depends on collaboration and trust, which goes back to HP EEsof's origins 40 years ago. “We have been No. 1 in RF/Microwave EDA for decades because our customers trust us,” he said. “Now, it’s time to extend that trust and deliver solutions that take existing and new customers into the future.” The Keysight portfolio team meets with Tier 1 customers regularly and here is a list of their pain points.

Time to market is shrinking, especially where the consumer life cycle dominates.

Complexity is also growing exponentially, with higher levels of integration, more advanced packaging and foundry processes, and higher user experience expectations.

Packing more into less space results in multi-domain interactions, detuned RF performance, and puts pressure on thermal management and power consumption.

The scale is now huge, with billions of devices produced from a single design.

Open environments and platforms are redefining the boundaries of ecosystems and workflows.

Maybe it's obvious, but Kamdar said another Keysight theme is from design to validation to manufacturing. "We help people simulate it. We help people build it. We help people measure it. No other RF/microwave EDA company really offers all three stages," he said. The connection between advanced measurement science in virtual and physical spaces, delivering the same results regardless of how users choose to work, is unique in the industry. In RF and microwave design, goals matter, and Keysight gives customers the best chance of first-time success while reducing planned disruption to hardware redesigns.

Do more with automation, interoperability and simulation

There are unknowns lurking beneath the surface. One is the "talent shortage," which is a situation where the right RF EDA tools are not used at the right moment in the workflow. It can occur in teams that work together across departments, across facilities, across continents, or across organizations.

If digital design is required, many people and mature EDA tools can handle complex designs in advanced flows with smooth switching. But bringing in mixed-signal technology - CPU, memory and RF in the same chipset - it's a different game. “Designs can cycle back and forth between technology areas, tools and people for changes and approvals,” said Daren McClearnon, director of RF and microwave product marketing at Keysight Technologies. “Co-designing with less RF-centric people requires another level of interoperability, otherwise it can degenerate into manual efforts trying to solve design problems.”

“When our customers face challenges, we’re excited because Keysight often has more to offer them,” Kamdar said. Fundamental changes, such as using industry-standard file formats, or incremental changes, such as scripting common programs, can yield huge returns for clients.

RF design prospects face what they consider to be tougher decisions. Changing workflows can be painful and there is a learning curve cost. Kamdar boils it down to one question: Are your existing solutions achieving your goals? He suggested that it's not always about switching tools per se, but more about introducing a tool that can integrate with the portfolio of tools within a service and provide value without disrupting workflows and adding extra steps.

Kamdar said people know Keysight's strengths in RF and 5G design and electromagnetic simulation technology, but not so much in other solutions in the portfolio, such as thermal simulation, package design and multiphysics analysis. Trust is crucial, and Kamdar wants more potential customers to experience what customers have already seen with the accuracy of real-world simulations. However, in the Keysight 2023 strategy, it is equally important to emphasize automating processes and making everything interoperable to help solve the talent shortage problem.

Three areas where Keysight RF and microwave EDA innovation is coming

Kamdar walked us through three focus areas of RF EDA innovation that his R&D team is actively pursuing, with launch expected in 2023.

Multi-technology and open platform. Simplifying physical co-design and verification in a Keysight environment or in workflows paired with Cadence, Synopsys and other EDA tools is a top priority. Foundry PDK products are also continually improving, with developments coming from several new or enhanced foundry and semiconductor partnerships.

6G and millimeter wave technology leadership. Keysight is firmly committed to actively participating in specification development for 5G-Advanced and 6G and supporting early-stage research in partnership with customers. Improvements to the core EM simulation engine across multiple product lines address densification challenges and drive state-of-the-art technology forward.

Firm size and transformation. Cloud computing and high-performance computing platforms are having an impact on productivity across the enterprise. Keysight engages them in RF and microwave engineering to scale up to meet peak demand at critical moments in the development life cycle. The "all Python, all the time" message drives increased script automation for repetitive tasks.

Going forward, Kamdar also sees a more prominent role for AI/ML in modeling and simulation. Keysight’s decade of AI/ML research is beginning to be integrated into its RF EDA solutions. One exciting application of artificial neural network (ANN) technology is Alex Petr's team's datasheet curve-to-model work.

Kamdar concluded that with in-person trade shows starting back up, he and his team are excited to get out and meet customers face-to-face again. Keysight's RF and microwave EDA vision and latest announcements will be on full display at several major industry events this year.