Power amplifier modeling and simulation optimization, including Satcom design improvements.
Improvements to software automation, intellectual property, and design data management capabilities.

Keysight Technologies (hereafter Keysight) has introduced integrated EDA software that enables a 'shift left' to increase the productivity of engineers developing high-speed, high-frequency products.

Keysight announced on the 9th the launch of Keysight EDA 2024, a precision-integrated electronic design automation (EDA) software tool that can be recognized for design verification in the early stages of development.

As the complexity of electronic systems increases, designers must complete as much verification as possible in the virtual domain to more easily and efficiently address functional and physical issues.

To address complexity, implementing accurate modeling and simulation methodologies to build virtual prototypes and digital twins is essential.

The key to building accurate models and faster simulations is to integrate real-world measurement data into the design and validation process in virtual spaces.

Keysight EDA 2024 software includes: new system and circuit design workflow integration; power amplifier modeling and simulation optimization; Satcom design enhancements; and previously announced software automation and intelligent resource management.△Simulation acceleration function has been further improved for mountain and design data management.

Powered by Keysight's measurement science, this new tool provides engineers with a comprehensive solution that accelerates virtual prototype creation with highly accurate verification prior to building physical prototypes and mass production manufacturing.

RF System Explorer, part of Keysight's EDA 2024 software suite, integrates the system architecture exploration and analysis capabilities of SystemVue into Advanced Design System (ADS) to enable design sharing between system- and circuit-level workflows.

RF System Explorer assigns hierarchical subsystems and parameters to circuit designers, allowing them to select analysis paths or change radio frequency (RF) block parameters without affecting the overall architecture.

Circuit designers can integrate circuit designs or derived behavioral models into assigned subsystems for RF verification and optimization.

The Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) Explorer and DPD Designer tools optimize power amplifier design methodology at an abstract level, similar to the workflow integration of the RF System Explorer.

Power amplifier designers addressing wideband applications such as 5G FR2, DVB-S2X, and WLAN can leverage new dynamic gain models that account for the nonlinear memory effects of topologies such as GaN Doherty.

System View has also been improved to suit 5G NTN (non-terrestrial network), DVB-S2X and phased array development projects.

For 5G NTN, the system view uses 1024 QAM modulation for 3GPP Release 17 and related MCS tables to support 5G NR (New Radio) Update the simulation library.

This library supports complete, comprehensive physical layer system simulation for various NTN deployments, new 5G channel models, and advanced transceivers.

Additionally, the channel model for NTN provides full propagation characteristics to model various satellite links and also supports large path delay, high-frequency Doppler shift, and phase panning visualization.

For DVB-S2X, designers can use SystemView Link with Keysight's Signal Studio and Vector Signal Analysis (VSA) software tools to create a complete digital twin for satellite digital video broadcasting.

The integrated solution features new models for Satcom channel modeling, a friendly graphical user interface for parameter configuration and intuitive navigation, VSA Flex Frame presets designed with DVB-S2/S2X in mind to speed up signal analysis, and DVB-S2X sources and receivers supporting low signal-to-noise ratio and bit error rate.

No scripting is required when integrating the SystemView design environment with signal generation and analysis tools in an integrated simulation and test ecosystem.

For phased arrays, SystemView enables easy and fast design capture through efficient simulation of complex systems containing hundreds or thousands of RF elements and paths.

SystemView simulates active impedance associated with Keysight and third-party FEM simulators.

Including X-parameters along with load-pull data can improve active impedance simulations and increase modeling accuracy of the interaction between power amplifiers and active array impedances.

Load pull modeling was performed with Keysight equipment.Create the most accurate phased array digital twin using proven hardware. SystemView also adds a new automated MDIF import feature to facilitate the consumption, manipulation, interpolation, and slicing of data such as S-parameters or other model files.

“The many enhancements in Keysight EDA 2024 are built with our customers’ top pain points in mind: faster time to market, first-time success, automated, integrated, open workflows, and high-speed, high-frequency performance,” said Niels Faché, vice president and general manager of Keysight EDA. “This is not just a shift left; it’s a shift left that leverages the measurement science and applications domain expertise we’ve applied to Keysight EDA.”